Floor plate and the subcommissural organ are the source of secretory compounds of related nature: comparative immunocytochemical study.

The subcommissural organ of vertebrates secretes glycoproteins into the third ventricle that condense to form Reissner's fiber (RF). Antibodies raised against the bovine RF-glycoproteins reacted with the floor plate (FP) cells of two teleost (Oncorhynchus kisutch, Sparus aurata) and two amphibian (Xenopus laevis, Batrachyla taeniata) species. At the ultrastructural level, the immunoreactivity was confined to secretory granules, mainly concentrated at the apical cell pole. In the rostro-caudal axis, a clear zonation of the FP was distinguished, with the hindbrain FP being the most, or the only (Batrachyla taeniata), immunoreactive region of the FP. In all the species studied, the caudal FP lacked immunoreactivity. Both the chemical nature of the immunoreactive material and the rostro-caudal zonation of the FP appear to be conservative features. Evidence was obtained that the FP secretes into the cerebrospinal fluid a material chemically related to the RF-glycoproteins secreted by the subcommissural organ. Thus, in addition to being the source of contact-mediated and diffusible signals, the FP might also secrete compounds into the cerebrospinal fluid that may act on distant targets.