In vivo transplantation of mammalian neural crest cells into chick hosts reveals a new autonomic sublineage restriction.

The study of mammalian neural crest development has been limited by the lack of an accessible system for in vivo transplantation of these cells. We have developed a novel transplantation system to study lineage restriction in the rodent neural crest. Migratory rat neural crest cells (NCCs), transplanted into chicken embryos, can differentiate into sensory, sympathetic, and parasympathetic neurons, as shown by the expression of neuronal subtype-specific and pan-neuronal markers, as well as into Schwann cells and satellite glia. In contrast, an immunopurified population of enteric neural precursors (ENPs) from the fetal gut can also generate neurons in all of these ganglia, but only expresses appropriate neuronal subtype markers in Remak's and associated pelvic parasympathetic ganglia. ENPs also appear restricted in the kinds of glia they can generate in comparison to NCCs. Thus ENPs have parasympathetic and presumably enteric capacities, but not sympathetic or sensory capacities. These results identify a new autonomic lineage restriction in the neural crest, and suggest that this restriction preceeds the choice between neuronal and glial fates.

哺乳动物神经嵴发育的研究因缺乏一种可用于这些细胞体内移植的可行系统而受到限制。我们开发了一种新的移植系统来研究啮齿动物神经嵴中的谱系限制。迁移的大鼠神经嵴细胞（NCCs）移植到鸡胚中后，能够分化为感觉神经元、交感神经元和副交感神经元，这通过神经元亚型特异性和泛神经元标志物的表达得以证明，同时也能分化为施万细胞和卫星胶质细胞。相比之下，从胎儿肠道免疫纯化的肠神经前体细胞（ENPs）群体也能在所有这些神经节中产生神经元，但仅在雷马克氏神经节和相关的盆腔副交感神经节中表达适当的神经元亚型标志物。与NCCs相比，ENPs在它们能够产生的神经胶质类型上似乎也受到限制。因此，ENPs具有副交感神经能力，可能还有肠神经能力，但没有交感神经或感觉神经能力。这些结果确定了神经嵴中一种新的自主神经谱系限制，并表明这种限制先于神经元和神经胶质命运之间的选择。