Summary
The cells of the neural crest have APUD properties at an early stage of devel opment (72 hours in the chick embryo). The FIF procedure provides a cytochemical means for their distinction.
Using mouse embryos from mothers injected, intraperitoneally, 1 hr before removal, with l-DOPA (100 mg/kg), the peripheral stream of neural crest cells was clearly identifiable at the 7-somite stage (7–8 days). At the 10-somite stage (8–9 days) the cells were observed to invade the lateral processes of the foregut, and the foregut itself. A particularly high concentration of fluorescent APUD cells was observed in the anterior portion of the IVth pharyngeal pouch, destined to become the ultimobranchial body.
At the 14-somite stage (11–12 days) the developing ultimobranchial body still contains fluorescent cells of neural crest origin.
The implications of these findings on the question of the origin of the entire APUD series of endocrine polypeptide cells is discussed.
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Pearse, A.G.E., Polak, J.M. Cytochemical evidence for the neural crest origin of mammalian ultimobranchial C cells. Histochemie 27, 96–102 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00284951
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00284951