Differentiation of lens and pigment cells in cultures of neural retinal cells of early chick embryos☆

[摘要] Dissociatedcellsofneuralretinasof3.5-day-oldchickembryos(stages20–21)wereculturedasamonolayerinordertoexaminetheirdifferentiationinvitro.Thesecellsstartedtogrowactivelysoonafterinoculationandformedaconfluentsheetwithinwhichneuroblast-likecellswithlongcytoplasmicprocessesweredifferentiatedby8days.Atabout16daysthedifferentiationofbothlentoidbodiesandfociofpigmentcellswasobserved,whileneuronalstructuredisappeared.Thenumbersoflentoidbodiesandfociofpigmentedcellscontinuedtoincreaseupto30days,whenprimarycultureswereterminated.Theincreaseinδ-crystallincontent,asmeasuredbyquantitativeimmunoelectrophoresisassayusingrabbitantiserumagainstδ-crystallin,wasconsistentwiththeincreaseinthenumberoflentoidbodiesincultures.Theamountofα-crystallinperculture,estimatedbythesametechniqueasabove,reachedamaximumat16daysanddecreasedslightlyduringfurtherculture.Thedifferentiationofbothlentoidbodiesandpigmentcellswasobservedalsoinculturesofthesecondgeneration.Theresultsdemonstratethatcellsoftheundifferentiatedneuroepitheliumof3.5-day-oldembryonicretinascanachieveatleastthreedifferentiations,neuronal,lens,andpigmentcells,invitro.Wediscussseveraldifferencesbetweenthepresentresultsandthepreviousonesfrominvitroculturesof8-to9-day-oldembryonicneuralretinas.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）