The critical stem cell transcription factor FoxD3 is expressed by the premigratory and migrating neural crest, an embryonic stem cell population that forms diverse derivatives. Despite its important role in development and stem cell biology, little is known about what mediates FoxD3 activity in these cells. We have uncovered two FoxD3 enhancers, NC1 and NC2, that drive reporter expression in sp...

Early in the process of development, vertebrate embryos develop a fold on the neural plate [6] where the neural and epidermal ectoderms meet, called the neural crest [7]. The neural crest [7] produces neural crest cells [8] (NCCs), which become multiple different cell types and contribute to tissues and organs as an embryo develops. A few of the organs and tissues include peripheral and enteric...

Defects in neural crest development have been implicated in many human disorders, but information about human neural crest formation mostly depends on extrapolation from model organisms. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can be differentiated into in vitro counterparts of the neural crest, and some of the signals known to induce neural crest formation in vivo are required during this process...

Human dental tissues are sources of neural crest origin multipotent stem cells whose regenerative potential is a focus of extensive studies. Rational programming of clinical applications requires a more detailed knowledge of the characters inherited from neural crest. Investigation of neural crest cells generated from human pluripotent stem cells provided opportunity for their comparison with t...

Neural crest cells form at the border between the neural plate and the epidermis. The tissue interactions that underlie neural crest cell induction have been investigated primarily by heterotopic grafting experiments in vivo and by conjugating different tissues in vitro. Three models have been proposed to explain the induction of neural crest cells at the neural plate border, i.e. (1) the influ...

The neural crest is a migratory cell population that gives rise to multiple cell types in the vertebrate embryo. The intrinsic determinants that segregate neural crest cells from multipotential dorsal progenitors within the neural tube are poorly defined. In this study, we show that the winged helix transcription factor Foxd3 is expressed in both premigratory and migratory neural crest cells. F...

The neural crest is a migratory population of cells that produces many diverse structures within the embryo. Trunk neural crest cells give rise to such structures as the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and sympathetic ganglia (SG), which form in a metameric pattern along the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo. While static analyses have provided invaluable information concerning the development of...

To permit a more detailed analysis of neural crest cell migratory pathways in the chick embryo, neural crest cells were labelled with a nondeleterious membrane intercalating vital dye, DiI. All neural tube cells with endfeet in contact with the lumen, including premigratory neural crest cells, were labelled by pressure injecting a solution of DiI into the lumen of the neural tube. When assayed ...