Development of chick paravertebral sympathetic ganglia. I. Fine structure and correlative histofluorescence of catecholaminergic cells

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Abstract
Paravertebral sympathetic ganglia from the lumbosacral region of a series of chick embryos have been studied with electron microscopic methods, including aldehyde-osmium and permanganate fixatives, and correlative histofluorescence (Grillo et al., '74). Our purpose was to assess the differentiation of catecholaminergic (CA) cells during histogenesis in ovo. Examination of comparable adult ganglia as a baseline for differentiating stages confirmed that the principal sympathetic neuron (PN) is similar to those of other species in that it contains predominately small dense-cored vesicles (SDCV) preserved only by permanganate, and does not histofluoresce following the method of Grillo et al. ('74). At embryonic day (E) 7–8, when ganglia have just formed, areas fluorescing bright yellow-green are correlated with two types of cells: (1) Neuroblasts with vesicular nuclei and large dense-cored vesicles (LDCV) are common. As the neuroblasts grow and differentiate, LDCV move away from perikaryal cytoplasm into developing processes. Around E13–15, SDCV appear in the neuroblasts which continue to develop until they resemble miniature adult PN in late embryos and hatchlings. (2) Granule (GR) cells with clumped chromatin and sparse cytoplasm are clustered in the ganglionic periphery at E7–8, but are rare. The GR cells increase somewhat in size and numbers by E11, but retain essentially the same characteristics as at earlier stages. Neither bright fluorescence nor GR cells appear later than stages E13–15. These results are interpreted to mean that when chick sympathetic stem cells have migrated from the primary ganglia into the paravertebral ganglia, they give rise to two separate lines of CA cells, one of which is not maintained and subsequently disappears. The results are significant as a basis for understanding how a mixed population of CA cells might arise within sympathetic ganglia in situ.