Biomedical subjects

S Boudannaoui

Publications and source records attributed to S Boudannaoui.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1990

Are neuronal precursor cells committed to coexpress different neuroactive substances in early amphibian neurulae?

Considering the initial expression of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides immediately after neural induction in amphibian embryos, we previously pointed out that a neuronal cell population emerges from neural plate (NP) and neural fold (NF) expressing very early specific cholinergic, catecholaminergic, GABAergic and peptidergic traits. The purpose of the present work was to investigate the extent to which the neuroblasts that are present in the neurectoderm immediately after gastrulation are committed to give rise to multiple subsets of neurons containing various combinations of neuroactive transmitters rather than to different subpopulations of neurochemically homogeneous neurons. By means of double immunocytochemical localization with a monoclonal TOH-antibody and polyclonal antibodies against GABA or somatostatin, no coexistence of neurotransmitters and neuropeptide was ever found in neuronal subpopulations arising in vitro from NP or NF. The early emergence, under the same conditions, of distinct neuronal subpopulations as a consequence of neural induction strongly suggests that, at the gastrula stage, the neural precursor population most probably does not constitute a homogeneous set of cells.

Animals↗

PubMed1990

From presumptive ectoderm to neural cells in an amphibian.

As an immediate consequence of neural induction during gastrulation, some neuroectodermal cells acquire the ability to develop a number of specific neuronal and astroglial features, without requiring subsequent chordamesodermal cues. Thus, cholinergic, dopaminergic, noradrenergic, gabaergic, somatostatinergic, enkephalinergic, etc. traits are expressed in cultures of neural plate and neural fold isolated from amphibian late gastrulae immediately after induction and cultured in a defined medium. These results strongly suggest that at the late gastrula stage, the neural precursor population does not yet constitute a homogeneous set of cells. It was of interest to know the origin of this heterogeneity. Is it a direct result of the process of neural induction itself, stochastic phenomena being involved or not at the cellular level, or does it reflect a pre-existing heterogeneity in the presumptive ectoderm? At the early gastrula state, presumptive ectoderm can be neuralized consecutively to its dissociation into single cells. Using this experimental model, we have demonstrated by means of immunological probes that neuralized presumptive ectodermal cells, without any intervention of the chordamesoderm (natural inducing tissue), can develop autonomously into glial and neuronal lineages. These data suggest the existence of diverse predispositions of presumptive ectodermal cells. Competent ectoderm seems to be a heterogeneous structure with cells presenting distinct neural predispositions that can emerge as a consequence of a permissive inductive signal without real specificity (such as a target tissue dissociation). Moreover, such a differentiated neuronal population includes neurons of the GABAergic and enkephalinergic phenotypes but not of the cholinergic, catecholaminergic, somatostatinergic, etc. phenotypes. These data show that the developmental program of ectodermal cells induced without interaction with the chordamesoderm appears restricted compared to the naturally induced ectoderm. Experiments are now under way to analyze such sequential neural events.

Amphibians↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Neural induction.

The molecular mechanism of neural induction of embryonic cells is an important but poorly understood problem in neuroembryology. Glycoconjugates in the target cell plasma membrane and/or its structural organization play a key role in the reception of the inductive signal. It is the competent target tissue itself which probably contains the capacity and specificity for neuralization. However, the mechanism of transmission of the signal which leads to activation of the intracellular machinery involved in the process of neural determination remains to be elucidated. With respect to the information acquired by the target cells during neural induction, and the early events in differentiation, neuronal precursor cells have been shown to have acquired the potential to display a high degree of biochemical and phenotypic differentiation, even in the absence of further embryonic influences.

Animals↗