Association of cephalic neural crest cells with cardiovascular development, particularly that of the semilunar valves.

The quail-chick chimera method was used to examine whether neural crest cells were associated with the formation of semilunar valves. From the metencephalon to somite 5, or from the otocyst to somite 3, left, right, or bilateral neural folds, including the neural crest, were transplanted. Among embryos used for the experiment, three into which left neural crest cells were transplanted, two into which right neural crest cells were transplanted, and two into which bilateral neural crest cells were transplanted had a morphologically normal heart. In these embryos, neural crest cells were found in all cusps of the aortic and pulmonary semilunar valves. Although neural crest cells have been thought to have no association with the formation of the semilunar valves, our experiment indicates that such association indeed occurs.