Morphology and behaviour of neural crest cells of chick embryo in vitro

Abstract

Neural primordia of chick embryos were cultured for three days and the behaviour of migrating neural crest cells studied. Somite cells were used as a comparison. Crest cells were actively multipolar with narrow projections which extended and retracted rapidly, contrasting to the gradual extension of somite-cell lamelleae. On losing cell contact, somite cells were also more directionally persistent. The rate of displacement of isolated crest cells was particularly low when calculated over a long time base. Both crest and somite cells were monolayered; contact paralysis occurred in somite cell collisions but was not ascertained for crest cells. However, crest cells in a population were far more directionally persistent than isolated cells. Contact duration between crest cells increased with time and they formed an open network. Eventually, retraction clumping occurred, initially and chiefly at the periphery of the crest outgrowth. Crest cells did not invade cultured embryonic mesenchymal or epithelial populations but endoderm underlapped them. No effects were observed on crest cells prior to direct contact. Substrate previously occupied by endoderm of ectoderm caused crest cells to flatten while substrate previously occupied by the neural tube caused them to round up and clump prematurely.

Tension in the culture dish: Microfilament organization and migratory behavior of quail neural crest cells

“…However, studies of neural crest cells [Newgreen et al, 1979;Rovasio et al, 1983; Erickson, 1985bl demonstrate that NC cells are also contact inhibited.…”

In vivo evidence for short- and long-range cell communication in cranial neural crest cells

“…(Noden, 1983). The need for individual neural crest cell pathfinding in this scenario is simplified if the neural tube controls cell exit points (Lumsden et al, 1991) such that cells diffuse laterally from high populations to low populations in segregated streams (LeDouarin, 1982;Newgreen et al, 1979;Rovasio et al, 1983). Studies in chick (Graham et al, 1993;Smith and Graham, 2001) and other amniotes (Knabe et al, 2004) show increased levels of cell death in specific rhombomeres, particularly r3 and r5.…”

“…Novel culture and imaging techniques, combined with Nomarski optics and labeling of premigratory neural crest cells, has allowed cell migratory behaviors to be visualized in tissue culture (Abercrombie, 1970;Bard and Hay, 1975;Erickson et al, 1980;Krull et al, 1995), in 2D and 3D gel substrates (Newgreen et al, 1979;Rovasio et al, 1983;Thomas and Yamada, 1992), in whole embryo culture (Spieth and Keller, 1984;Kulesa and Fraser, 1998), and in ovo (Kulesa and Fraser, 2000). Analyses of cell movements suggest the mechanisms that sculpt the pattern are more complex than would be expected from a purely directed diffusion model and may include cell-cell and cell-environment interactions in the form of chemotaxis, contact inhibition, contact guidance and haptotaxis.…”

The migratory behavior of immature enteric neurons

“…Although the majority of ENCCs, which are presumably undifferentiated ENCCs, are often tapered in the direction of migration, they are multipolar with multiple short, transient filopodia that extend and retract from the cell body (Druckenbrod and Epstein, 2007). Other populations of migrating neural crest cells, including trunk and cranial neural crest cells in vitro (Newgreen et al, 1979), in explants (Kasemeier- Kulesa et al, 2006) and in vivo (Krull et al, 1995;Teddy and Kulesa, 2004;Kasemeier-Kulesa et al, 2005;McLennan and Kulesa, 2007;Rupp and Kulesa, 2007) have also been reported to be multipolar, and to extend and retract multiple filopodial extensions. Other migratory cells such as fibroblasts and neutro-phils also lack long-leading processes (Ridley et al, 2003).…”