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

摘要

Dissociatedcellsofneuralretinasof3.5-day-oldchickembryos(stages20a€“21)wereculturedasamonolayerinordertoexaminetheirdifferentiationinvitro.Thesecellsstartedtogrowactivelysoonafterinoculationandformedaconfluentsheetwithinwhichneuroblast-likecellswithlongcytoplasmicprocessesweredifferentiatedby8days.Atabout16daysthedifferentiationofbothlentoidbodiesandfociofpigmentcellswasobserved,whileneuronalstructuredisappeared.Thenumbersoflentoidbodiesandfociofpigmentedcellscontinuedtoincreaseupto30days,whenprimarycultureswereterminated.Theincreasein?′-crystallincontent,asmeasuredbyquantitativeimmunoelectrophoresisassayusingrabbitantiserumagainst?′-crystallin,wasconsistentwiththeincreaseinthenumberoflentoidbodiesincultures.Theamountof?±-crystallinperculture,estimatedbythesametechniqueasabove,reachedamaximumat16daysanddecreasedslightlyduringfurtherculture.Thedifferentiationofbothlentoidbodiesandpigmentcellswasobservedalsoinculturesofthesecondgeneration.Theresultsdemonstratethatcellsoftheundifferentiatedneuroepitheliumof3.5-day-oldembryonicretinascanachieveatleastthreedifferentiations,neuronal,lens,andpigmentcells,invitro.Wediscussseveraldifferencesbetweenthepresentresultsandthepreviousonesfrominvitroculturesof8-to9-day-oldembryonicneuralretinas.