Embryonic origin of substance P containing neurons in cranial and spinal sensory ganglia of the avian embryo

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The ontogeny of the neurons exhibiting substance P-like immunoreactivity (SPLI) was examined in the spinal and cranial sensory ganglia of chick and quail embryos. It was shown that in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) virtually all neuronal somas occupying the mediodorsal (MD) region of the ganglia are SPLI-positive while the larger neurons of the lateroventral (LV) area are SPLI-negative. In the cranial nerve ganglia, both types of neurons coexist in the trigeminal ganglion but with a different distribution: small neurons with SPLI are proximal while large neurons without SPLI occupy the maxillomandibular and ophthalmic lobes. The distal ganglia of nerves VII and IX (i.e., geniculate, petrosal) do not show cell bodies with SPLI in the two species considered. A few of them only (about 12%) are found in the nodose (distal ganglion of nerve X). The proximal ganglia of nerves IX and X (i.e., superior-jugular complex) are composed of small neurons which virtually all exhibit SPLI. Chimaeric cranial sensory ganglia were constructed by grafting the quail hind-brain primordium into chick embryos. Revelation of SPLI was combined with acridine orange staining on the same sections in order to ascertain the placodal (chick host) or neural crest (quail donor) origin of the SP-positive neurons in each type of ganglion. We found that all the neurons showing SPLI are derived from the neural crest in the trigeminal and in the superior and jugular ganglia. In the geniculate, petrosal, and nodose all the neurons are derived from the placodal ectoderm. The small number of SPLI-positive cells of the nodose ganglia are not an exception to this rule. Therefore, generally speaking, the sensory neurons of the cranial ganglia that express the SP phenotype are derived from the crest, with the exception of some neurons present in the nodose of both quail and chick embryos and which are of placodal origin. The vast majority of placode-derived neurons do not have amounts of SP that can be detected under the conditions of the present study.