THE REGENERATION OF THE CEPHALIC NEURAL CREST, A PROBLEM REVISITED - THE REGENERATING CELLS ORIGINATE FROM THE CONTRALATERAL OR FROM THE ANTERIOR AND POSTERIOR NEURAL FOLD
G. Couly et al., THE REGENERATION OF THE CEPHALIC NEURAL CREST, A PROBLEM REVISITED - THE REGENERATING CELLS ORIGINATE FROM THE CONTRALATERAL OR FROM THE ANTERIOR AND POSTERIOR NEURAL FOLD, Development, 122(11), 1996, pp. 3393-3407
The mesencephalic and rhombencephalic levels of origin of the hypobran
chial skeleton (lower jaw and hyoid bone) within the neural fold have
been determined at the 5-somite stage with a resolution corresponding
to each single rhombomere, by means of the quail-chick chimera techniq
ue. Expression of certain Hox genes (Hoxa-2, Hoxa-3 and Hoxb-4) was re
corded in the branchial arches of chick and quail embryos at embryonic
days 3 (E3) and E4. This was a prerequisite for studying the regenera
tion capacities of the neural crest, after the dorsal neural tube was
resected at the mesencephalic and rhombencephalic level. We found firs
t that excisions at the 5-somite stage extending from the mid-mesencep
halon down to r8 are followed by the regeneration of neural crest cell
s able to compensate for the deficiencies so produced. This confirmed
the results of previous authors who made similar excisions at comparab
le (or older) developmental stages. When a bilateral excision was foll
owed by the unilateral homotopic graft of the dorsal neural tube from
a quail embryo, thus mimicking the situation created by a unilateral e
xcision, we found that the migration of the grafted unilateral neural
crest (quail-labelled) is bilateral and compensates massively for the
missing crest derivatives. The capacity of the intermediate and ventra
l neural tube to yield neural crest cells was tested by removing the c
hick rhombencephalic neural tube and replacing it either uni- or bilat
erally with a ventral tube coming from a stage-matched quail. No neura
l crest cells exited from the ventral neural tube but no deficiency in
neural crest derivatives was recorded, Crest cells were found to rege
nerate from the ends of the operated region. This was demonstrated by
grafting fragments of quail neural fold at the extremities of the exci
sed territory. Quail neural crest cells were seen migrating longitudin
ally from both the rostral and caudal ends of the operated region and
filling the branchial arches located inbetween. Comparison of the beha
viour of neural crest cells in this experimental situation with that s
howed by their normal fate map revealed that crest cells increase thei
r proliferation rate and change their migratory behaviour without modi
fying their Hox code.