Kalcheim Chaya, Burstyn-Cohen Tal
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel .
Int J Dev Biol. 2005;49(2-3):105-16. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.041949ck.
Long standing research of the Neural Crest embodies the most fundamental questions of Developmental Biology. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for specification, delamination, migration and phenotypic differentiation of this highly diversifying group of progenitors has been a challenge for many researchers over the years and continues to attract newcomers into the field. Only a few leaps were more significant than the discovery and successful exploitation of the quail-chick model by Nicole Le Douarin and colleagues from the Institute of Embryology at Nogent-sur-Marne. The accurate fate mapping of the neural crest performed at virtually all axial levels was followed by the determination of its developmental potentialities as initially analysed at a population level and then followed by many other significant findings. Altogether, these results paved the way to innumerable questions which brought us from an organismic view to mechanistic approaches. Among them, elucidation of functions played by identified genes is now rapidly underway. Emerging results lead the way back to an integrated understanding of the nature of interactions between the developing neural crest and neighbouring structures. The Nogent Institute thus performed an authentic "tour de force" in bringing the Neural Crest to the forefront of Developmental Biology. The present review is dedicated to the pivotal contributions of Nicole Le Douarin and her collaborators and to unforgettable memories that one of the authors bears from the time spent in the Nogent Institute. We summarize here recent advances in our understanding of early stages of crest ontogeny that comprise specification of epithelial progenitors to a neural crest fate and the onset of neural crest migration. Particular emphasis is given to signaling by BMP and Wnt molecules, to the role of the cell cycle in generating cell movement and to possible interactions between both mechanisms.
对神经嵴的长期研究体现了发育生物学中最基本的问题。多年来，了解这群高度多样化祖细胞的特化、分层、迁移和表型分化机制一直是许多研究人员面临的挑战，并且该领域持续吸引新的研究者加入。在众多重大进展中，法国马恩河畔诺让市胚胎学研究所的妮可·勒杜兰及其同事发现并成功运用鹌鹑 - 鸡模型尤为突出。在几乎所有轴向水平上对神经嵴进行精确的命运图谱绘制之后，先是在群体水平上分析其发育潜能，随后又有许多其他重大发现。总的来说，这些结果引发了无数问题，使我们从有机体视角转向了机制研究方法。其中，对已鉴定基因所发挥功能的阐释目前正在迅速推进。新出现的结果引导我们重新综合理解发育中的神经嵴与相邻结构之间相互作用的本质。因此，诺让研究所确实取得了一项了不起的成就，将神经嵴研究推到了发育生物学的前沿。本综述致力于介绍妮可·勒杜兰及其合作者的关键贡献，以及其中一位作者在诺让研究所工作期间留下的难忘回忆。我们在此总结了目前对神经嵴个体发生早期阶段的理解进展，这些早期阶段包括上皮祖细胞向神经嵴命运的特化以及神经嵴迁移的起始。特别强调了骨形态发生蛋白（BMP）和Wnt分子的信号传导、细胞周期在产生细胞运动中的作用以及这两种机制之间可能存在的相互作用。
