Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 4, 1549-1558, Copyright © 1984 by Society for Neuroscience
In vivo and in vitro development of somatostatin-like-immunoreactivity in the peripheral nervous system of quail embryos
JE Garcia-Arraras, M Chanconie and J Fontaine-Perus
The appearance and development of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI)
in the peripheral nervous system of quail embryos were studied using
radioimmunoanalysis and immunocytochemistry. In vivo, no SLI is observed in
neural crest cells before or during migration. SLI appears between days 3
and 4 of incubation in sympathetic ganglia, immediately following ganglion
formation, and between days 4 and 5 of incubation in the adrenal gland,
soon after the adrenal gland primordium first appears. The development of
SLI in the adrenal gland differs from that in the sympathetic ganglia.
While in the former the amount of SLI and the number of SLI-containing
cells increase as the embryo ages, in the sympathetic ganglia the amount of
SLI and the percentage of SLI- containing cells decrease. When migrating
neural crest cells are obtained from the sclerotomal part of 3-day embryos
and grown in culture, they first display SLI after 48 hr, and the amount of
SLI increases thereafter. When the sympathoadrenal precursors are removed
at 4 days of incubation and grown in vitro, SLI appears after 24 hr in
culture and increases during the next few days. Our results demonstrate
that SLI is present very early in the quail embryo and that its appearance
parallels the differentiation of neural crest cells into autonomic
sympathetic ganglionic cells. We also show that the differentiation of
neural crest into SLI-containing cells can be reproduced in culture, thus
permitting the study of peptide production and expression in vitro.