Adrenergic development of neural crest cells grown in a defined medium under a reconstituted basement-membrane-like matrix.

The embryonic neural crest of vertebrates is the source of a wide variety of adult cell types. We have demonstrated previously that the presence of a reconstituted basement-membrane-like (RBM) gel overlay can dramatically stimulate the development of adrenergic cells in neural crest cultures grown in a complex medium containing horse serum and chick embryo extract. In the present experiments we have analyzed the differentiation of neural crest cells grown in a defined medium with an RBM gel overlay. We found that the presence of the RBM gel promoted the development of catecholamine-containing (CA+) cells in neural crest cultures grown in defined medium compared to cultures grown in this same medium in the absence of the gel. The number of CA+ cells which developed in cultures grown in defined medium in the presence of the RBM gel overlay was similar to that seen in cultures grown in complex medium in the absence of the RBM gel.