scholarly journals Cellular Interactions in Cell Differentiation

Development ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-285
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Amprino

It is of some interest, in connexion with the problem of cellular interactions, to view the affinities between different tissues in various stages of development. The problem has been extensively investigated by Holtfreter in the early stages of the amphibian egg. Professor P. Weiss has briefly reported on the stimulating observations made by Chiakulas (1952) on grafts of epithelia from various sources to the skin of larval amphibians. I have performed experiments which bear some analogies to the last-mentioned ones by confronting side by side in situ layers of heterogeneous tissues, which in normal development form distinct constituents of one anatomical region, namely the eye region. Pieces of tissues of various extent were mechanically removed from the eye-forming region of chick embryos of from 2 to 30 somites, and more or less wide gaps created.

Author(s):  
J. P. Revel

Movement of individual cells or of cell sheets and complex patterns of folding play a prominent role in the early developmental stages of the embryo. Our understanding of these processes is based on three- dimensional reconstructions laboriously prepared from serial sections, and from autoradiographic and other studies. Many concepts have also evolved from extrapolation of investigations of cell movement carried out in vitro. The scanning electron microscope now allows us to examine some of these events in situ. It is possible to prepare dissections of embryos and even of tissues of adult animals which reveal existing relationships between various structures more readily than used to be possible vithout an SEM.


2000 ◽  
Vol 278 (5) ◽  
pp. C982-C988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni Levy ◽  
Steven D. Smith ◽  
Kala Chandler ◽  
Yoel Sadovsky ◽  
D. Michael Nelson

Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction are associated with placental hypoperfusion and villous hypoxia. The villous response to this environment includes diminished trophoblast differentiation and enhanced apoptosis. We tested the hypothesis that hypoxia induces apoptosis in cultured trophoblasts, and that epidermal growth factor (EGF), an enhancer of trophoblast differentiation, diminishes hypoxia-induced apoptosis. Trophoblasts isolated from placentas of term-uncomplicated human pregnancies were cultured up to 72 h in standard ([Formula: see text]= 120 mmHg) or hypoxic ([Formula: see text] < 15 mmHg) conditions. Exposure to hypoxia for 24 h markedly enhanced trophoblast apoptosis as determined by DNA laddering, internucleosomal in situ DNA fragmentation, and histomorphology, as well as by the reversibility of the apoptotic process with a caspase inhibitor. Apoptosis was accompanied by increased expression of p53 and Bax and decreased expression of Bcl-2. Addition of EGF to cultured trophoblasts or exposure of more differentiated trophoblasts to hypoxia significantly lowered the level of apoptosis. We conclude that hypoxia enhances apoptosis in cultured trophoblasts by a mechanism that involves an increase in p53 and Bax expression. EGF and enhancement of cell differentiation protect against hypoxic-induced apoptosis.


Development ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-281
Author(s):  
G. Teitelman

Removal of the polar lobe at the trefoil stage of the first cleavage division of Ilyanassa embryos causes abnormalities much later in development. To determine if the developmental differences between normal and delobed embryos were reflected in alterations in protein synthesis and at what stages of development these become evident, protein solutions were separated by disc electrophoresis on basic acrylamide gels. For the analysis of the newly synthesized proteins, two protein samples, one labelled with 14C and the other with 3H, were combined in the same electrophoretic column. Each was prepared from normal embryos or lobeless embryos at different stages of development. The distribution of the two groups of differentially labelled proteins was compared by a determination, for each fraction, of the ratio of the normalized 3H/14C counts for that particular fraction (R = 3H/14C). The plot of R versus fraction number was studied for various combinations of samples. During normal development the profile of labelled proteins remains unchanged until the onset of visible differentiation. At this stage, around day 4 of development, there are changes in biosynthesis revealed by a greater emphasis on the synthesis of slow moving proteins. The profile of labelled proteins of lobeless embryos remains unchanged up to the 5th day of development. This result is correlated with the absence, in the lobeless embryos, of many of the visible differentiations. Preliminary studies revealed that the spectrum of labelled proteins of the polar lobe is identical to the one present in lobeless embryos and in normal embryos in early stages of development. This suggests the possibility that the morphogenetic factors associated with the polar lobe are not among the newly synthesized proteins. A hypothesis is presented to account for the effects on morphogenesis and protein synthesis which are produced by removal of the polar lobe.


Development ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-348
Author(s):  
Francis J. Manasek

The mature heart may be thought of as consisting of three layers, endocardium, myocardium, and an outer investing tissue called the epicardium. During early formation of the tubular heart of chick embryos, at about the 8-somite stage, two tissue layers become clearly discernible with the light microscope: the endocardium and the developing myocardial wall. The outer epicardial layer does not appear until later in development. It is generally accepted that embryonic heart wall or ‘epimyocardium’ is composed of muscle and undifferentiated cells. As its name implies, the epimyocardium is thought to give rise to myocardium and epicardium. Kurkiewicz (1909) suggested that the epicardium was not an epimyocardial derivative but rather is formed from cells originating in the sinus venosus region, which migrate over the surface of the heart. Nevertheless, it has become generally accepted that the outer cell layer of the embryonic heart wall differentiates in situ to give rise to the definitive visceral epicardium (Patten, 1953).


Development ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153
Author(s):  
Sadao Yasugi

Quail allantoic endoderm was implanted into the presumptive digestive-tract area of chick embryos, and the differentiation of the endoderm was examined morphologically and immunocytochemically with antisera against pepsinogens and sucrase. The allantoic endoderm was incorporated into the host digestive organs. It often became continuous with the host endoderm and formed a chimaeric digestive-tract epithelium. It differentiated morphologically into the epithelium of the digestive organ into which it was incorporated, showing the morphological inductive ability in situ of the digestive-tract mesenchyme against the allantoic endoderm. However, the allantoic endoderm did not produce pepsinogens even when it was incorporated into the host proventricular mesenchyme and formed well-developed proventricular glands. This result indicates that the heterotypic morphogenesis of the allantoic endoderm is not necessarily accompanied by the heterotypic cytodifferentiation. In contrast, the anti-sucrase antiserum-reactive cells often differentiated in the allantoic endoderm incorporated into not only the intestine but also other organs. This confirmed our previous observation that the allantoic endoderm has a tendency to differentiate into the intestinal epithelium in the heterologous environment.


1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
W H Borman ◽  
D E Yorde

We explored the relationship in chick embryos between somitogenesis and the onset of somite myogenesis by immunodetection of the muscle-specific intermediate filament protein desmin. Early somite desmin expression was detected by whole-mount in situ confocal microscopy. No detectable somite desmin was observed in embryos of 15 somites (Stage 12) or younger. In embryos having between 16 and 26 somites (Stages 12-15), desmin could be detected in somites positioned increasingly more caudal in the embryo. Finally, in embryos of 27 somites (Stage 16) and older, somite desmin expression was consistently present in all but the caudal-most six somites. Although the rate of somite formation is fairly constant, the rate of observed somite desmin expression progressing caudally in the embryo is greater initially than the rate of segmentation. After an embryo has formed about 27 somites, the rate of desmin appearance parallels the rate of segmentation at a distance of about six somites. This result suggests that very early somite myogenesis is not linked to somitogenesis.


Development ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
L. Gwen Britt ◽  
Heinz Herrmann

The recent development of techniques originally devised by Waddington (1932) for the maintenance of the explanted chick embryo (Spratt, 1947; New, 1955; Wolff & Simon, 1955) has opened the possibility of determining quantitatively some parameters of the developmental processes occurring in embryonic tissues under these conditions. As a result of such measurements, protein accumulation in explanted embryos was found to be much smaller than in embryos developing in the egg. On the other hand, the progress of somite formation was found to take place at similar rates in embryos developing as explants or in situ (Herrmann & Schultz, 1958). The slow rate of protein accumulation in the explanted embryos made it seem desirable to investigate whether under some other conditions of explantation protein accumulation would approach more closely the rate of protein formation observed in the naturally developing embryo.


1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-596
Author(s):  
H. Fujisawa ◽  
H. Morioka ◽  
K. Watanabe ◽  
H. Nakamura

Ultrastructural studies of thin-sectioned and freeze-cleaved materials were performed on developing retinal tissues of 3- to 9-day-old chick embryos to clarify the junctional structures between neural retinal cells and between neural retinal cells and cells of the pigmented epithelium. Frequency, size and position of gap junctions in developing neural retina are different at each stage of development. In 3-day-old embryos, some cells adhere to each other by gap junctions immediately below the outer limiting membrane of neural retinae. The size and number of gap junctions increase remarkably during 5–6 days of incubation. In this period of development, well developed gap junctions consisting of subcompartments of intramembrane particles are found between cell surfaces at both the outer limiting membrane region and the deeper portion of the neural retina. Gap junctions disappear thereafter, and at 7-5 days of incubation, small gap junctions are predominant between cell surfaces at the outer limiting membrane region, while the frequency of gap junctions in the deeper portion is very low. At 9 days of incubation, gap junctions are rarely found. Typical gap junctions are always found between neural retinal cells and those of the pigmented epithelium in embryos up to 7-5 days of incubation. Tight junctions are not found in the neural retina or between neural retina and pigmented epithelium throughout the stages examined.


1979 ◽  
Vol 236 (5) ◽  
pp. R282-R291
Author(s):  
E. F. Adolph

Survival times in anoxia and hypoxia were measured at various stages of development in Ambystoma embryos and larvae of two species. Survival times in anoxia at 20 degrees C shifted from more than 30 h at 2 days after fertilization to 20 h at 10 days of age, to only 4--2 h at 14 days of age. In hypoxia (oxygen pressure equivalent to 3.8% oxygen) similar shifts of survival times appeared about 7 days of age later. During anoxia heart rates decreased, less at younger stages than at older. At older stages the heart stopped beating, sometimes irreversibly. In hypoxia also, hearts at all stages whether in situ or isolated decreased their rates of beat. Oxygen uptakes of larvae diminished in oxygen pressures even as high as 11% oxygen. This critical oxygen pressure did not change between early stages without blood flow and later stages with blood flow. Oxygen uptake was probably not limited by oxygen delivery but presumably by properties of cellular masses. No oxygen debts were paid off. Some parallel changes of tolerances to anoxia in embryo birds and mammals are noted.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document