LIMB-SOMITE RELATIONSHIP - MYOGENIC POTENTIALITIES OF SOMATOPLEURAL MESODERM

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 69  (3) , 175-195
Abstract
To investigate the differentiating capacities of limb somatopleural mesoderm, 2-day quail limb somatopleural mesoderm was ectopically implanted into 2-day chick hosts (into the flank, in place of the neural tube or between the neural alar plates), and the specificity of the muscle cells in the resulting ectopic limbs was analyzed 7-10 days later. The grafts were grouped as a function of the stage of segmentation of the adjacent somitic mesoderm at the time of excision. Grafts, in which adjacent somitic mesoderm was still unsegmented (before stage 15 pairs of somites for the wing grafts and 26 pairs of somites for the leg grafts) or in process of segmentation (stages 15-20 pairs of somites for the wing grafts, only) were considered; after histological investigation, they were determined to be devoid of somitically derived myogenic cells at the time of transplantation. In 6 of 29 cases such grafts expressed the ability to differentiate quail muscle cells. Limb somatopleural mesoderm contains a labile population of cells able to adjust its differentiative capacities to the environment.