Persistent expression of BMP-4 in embryonic chick adrenal cortical cells and its role in chromaffin cell development

  • Background: Adrenal chromaffin cells and sympathetic neurons both originate from the neural crest, yet signals that trigger chromaffin development remain elusive. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) emanating from the dorsal aorta are important signals for the induction of a sympathoadrenal catecholaminergic cell fate. Results: We report here that BMP-4 is also expressed by adrenal cortical cells throughout chick embryonic development, suggesting a putative role in chromaffin cell development. Moreover, bone morphogenetic protein receptor IA is expressed by both cortical and chromaffin cells. Inhibiting BMP-4 with noggin prevents the increase in the number of tyrosine hydroxylase positive cells in adrenal explants without affecting cell proliferation. Hence, adrenal BMP-4 is likely to induce tyrosine hydroxylase in sympathoadrenal progenitors. To investigate whether persistent BMP-4 exposure is able to induce chromaffin traits in sympathetic ganglia, we locally grafted BMP-4 overexpressing cells next to sympathetic ganglia. Embryonic day 8 chick sympathetic ganglia, in addition to principal neurons, contain about 25% chromaffin-like cells. Ectopic BMP-4 did not increase this proportion, yet numbers and sizes of "chromaffin" granules were significantly increased. Conclusions: BMP-4 may serve to promote specific chromaffin traits, but is not sufficient to convert sympathetic neurons into a chromaffin phenotype.

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Author:Katrin Huber, Aylin Franke, Barbara Brühl, Shlomi Krispin, Uwe ErnsbergerGND, Andreas Schober, Oliver von Bohlen und HalbachORCiDGND, Hermann RohrerORCiD, Chaya Kalcheim, Klaus Unsicker
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-59816
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/1749-8104-3-28
ISSN:1749-8104
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18945349
Parent Title (English):Neural development
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2008
Date of first Publication:2008/10/22
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2008/11/12
Volume:3
Issue:Art. 28
Page Number:15
First Page:1
Last Page:15
Note:
© 2008 Huber et al. , licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Source:Neural Development 2008, 3:28 ; doi:10.1186/1749-8104-3-28 ; http://www.neuraldevelopment.com/content/3/1/28
HeBIS-PPN:207623929
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Angeschlossene und kooperierende Institutionen / MPI für Hirnforschung
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 2.0