Amphibian sympathetic ganglia in tissue culture

Abstract

1. A culture medium has been developed for amphibian sympathetic nervous tissue but it is suggested that the ionic values should be adjusted to correspond to the concentrations of salts in the plasma of particular species. 2. The morphology, monoamine fluorescence, growth and differentiation of sympathetic ganglia of the frog, Limnodynastes dumerili, have been studied in culture. 3. Two types of neuron could be distinguished largely according to size, namely small, 18 X 20 mum and large, 38 X 42 mum. The possibility that these represent one type at different stages in development or represent functionally distinct neurons is discussed. 4. The sympathetic neurons are extremely sensitive to nerve growth factor (NGF) which caused an increase in the size of the cell bodies, the number of nerve fibres regenerating, the rate of axonal growth and synthesis of catecholamines. 5. Various other cell types appearing in the cultures have been described, including chromaffin, satellite, Schwann, multipolar and epithelial cells as well as fibroblasts, melanocytes and macrophages. The epithelial cells show slow contractions and changes in shape.