Cell lineages in peripheral nervous system ontogeny: Medium-induced modulation of neuronal phenotypic expression in neural crest cell cultures

C. Ziller*, M. Fauquet, C. Kalcheim, J. Smith, N. M. Le Douarin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

Neural crest, taken from cephalic and trunk levels of quail embryos, was grown in vitro in conventional tissue culture medium (Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing 15% fetal calf serum and either 2 or 15% chick embryo extract (CEE)) or in a chemically defined serum- and CEE-free medium. Depending on the conditions employed, different types of neuronal or neuronlike cells developed in the cultures. Thus, in medium containing 15% CEE, adrenergic cells (identified by tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity and catecholamine histofluorescence) emerged after 5-6 days. These cells lacked tetanus toxin binding sites and did not react with an antibody directed against 70-kDa neurofilament protein. In the fully defined medium, a neuronal cell type exhibiting neurofilament and substance P (SP) immunoreactivity differentiated from noncycling precursors within 1 or 2 days of culture. If serum was added to the medium, the neurites disintegrated and the neuronal cells ultimately died. By sequentially culturing neural crest, first in the wholly synthetic medium for 1-3 days and then in the conventional medium supplemented with serum and 15% CEE, the disappearance of the SP-positive neurons was followed, several days later, by the emergence of adrenergic cells. The majority of these cells and/or their precursors were found to undergo cell division in culture. We conclude that the cells expressing the adrenergic phenotype (characteristic of the sympathetic nervous system) and those displaying SP immunoreactivity, comparable to a category of neurons in dorsal root and cranial sensory ganglia, derive from distinct sets of precursors. Our results reinforce the contention, deduced from in ovo transplantation experiments (see N. M. Le Douarin, (1984) In Cellular and Molecular Biology of Neuronal Development (I. Black, Ed.), pp. 3-28. Plenum, New York), that at least two lineages, from which sensory and autonomic cell types are derived respectively, are segregated early during neural crest ontogeny and have extremely different survival and trophic requirements.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)101-111
Number of pages11
JournalDevelopmental Biology
Volume120
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1987
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the assistance of M. Le Thierry for cell cultures, C. Breant for biochemical measurements, B. Henri for illustrations, and E. Bourson and A. Le Moue1 for preparing the manuscript. We thank Dr. D. Paulin and Dr. A. Berod for kindly providing antibodies. This work was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and by grants from the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, the Minis&e de la Recherche et de l’In-dustrie, the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale Francaise, and the Ligue contre le Cancer, and by Basic Research Grant l-866 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.

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