High-affinity uptake of noradrenaline in quail dorsal root ganglion cells that express tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in vitro.

During embryonic life, avian sensory ganglia contain cells with the potential to express, under appropriate experimental conditions, a number of properties characteristic of autonomic sympathetic neurons. Thus, cells capable of synthesizing noradrenaline (NA) from tyrosine differentiate when dorsal root ganglia (DRG) from 10-15 d embryonic quail are grown in culture (Xue et al., 1985a, b). In the present study, we show that cultures of DRG from 10 d embryos can take up 3H-NA by a high-affinity (Km = 1.0 microM), temperature-dependent process that can be inhibited by desmethylimipramine. By means of combined immunocytochemistry and autoradiography, it was demonstrated that the majority (70-80%) of the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive cells that developed in the cultures possessed a transport system for NA. Catecholamine (CA) uptake also occurred in a small, but relatively constant, number of TH-negative cells, but was absent from substance P-containing neurons. In contrast to TH, which appears only after 3-4 d in vitro, cells capable of taking up NA with high affinity were found in DRG cultures after only a few hours, and a small number (less than 0.5% of the total cell population) was detected in freshly removed, uncultured ganglia. Such cells did not react with antibodies directed against substance P or neurofilament proteins. We conclude that autonomic precursors are identifiable in a subset of non-neuronal DRG cells, prior to full expression of a noradrenergic phenotype, by their possession of a high-affinity uptake system for CA.