The formation of membrane bone from neural crest-derived mesenchyme of the maxillary and mandibular processes of the embryonic chick depends upon prior interactions between the mesenchyme and maxillary or mandibular epithelia. The present study explores the specificity of these interactions using tissue recombinations between heterotypic epithelia and mesenchyme. Mandibular and maxillary mesenc...

Recombination of the epithelium and mesenchyme between quail anterior submaxillary gland (elongating type) and quail anterior lingual or mouse submaxillary gland (branching type) was effected in vitro to clarify whether the elongating morphogenesis was directed by the epithelial or the mesenchymal component. Quail anterior submaxillary epithelium recombined with quail anterior lingual or mouse ...

Epithelia and mesenchyme interact during various physiologic and pathologic processes. Scatter factor is a mesenchyme-derived cytokine that stimulates motility, proliferation, and morphogenesis of epithelia. Recent studies suggest that scatter factor and its receptor (c-met) mediate mesenchyme/epithelia signalling and even interconversion. In this mini-review, we will discuss how scatter factor...

we have produced a spectrum of limb defects in developing mouse embryos by exposing the mother to smoke from cigarettes with different nicotine concentrations, ethanol, and a combination of ethanol and cigarette smoke. the critical time of exposure was determined to be during day 10 of gestation (vaginal plug=day 0). this time is prior to the critical events which occur between the apical ectod...

Pattern in the developing limb depends on signaling by polarizing region mesenchyme cells, which are located at the posterior margin of the bud tip. Here we address the underlying cellular mechanisms. We show in the intact bud that connexin 43 (Cx43) and Cx32 gap junctions are at higher density between distal posterior mesenchyme cells at the tip of the bud than between either distal anterior o...

At gastrulation the primary mesenchyme cells of sea urchin embryos lose contact with the extracellular hyaline layer and with neighboring blastomeres as they pass through the basal lamina and enter the blastocoel. This delamination process was examined using a cell-binding assay to follow changes in affinities between mesenchyme cells and their three substrates: hyalin, early gastrula cells, an...

In the present study, the question of whether a relatively non-specific epithelial requirement exists for membrane bone formation within the maxillary mesenchyme was investigted. Organ rudiments from embryonic chicks of three to five days of incubation (HH 18-25) were enzymatically separated into the epithelial and mesenchymal components. Maxillary mesenchyme (from embryos HH 18-19) which in th...

Echinoids (sea urchins) are divided into twomajor groups – cidaroids (a ‘primitive’group)andeuechinoids (a ‘derived’group).Thecidaroidsarea promisingmodelspecies for understanding theancestral developmental mechanisms in echinoids, but little is known about the molecular mechanisms of cidaroid development. In euechinoids, skeletogenic mesenchyme cell specification is regulated by the double-neg...

The murine Six gene family, homologous to Drosophila sine oculis (so) which encodes a homeodomain transcription factor, is composed of six members (Six1-6). Among the six members, only the Six2 gene has been previously shown to be expressed early in kidney development, but its function is unknown. We have recently found that the Six1 gene is also expressed in the kidney. In the developing kidne...