Developmental studies on the rat vomeronasal organ: vascular pattern and neuroepithelial differentiation. I. Light microscopy.

The origin and the developmental sequence of the rat vomeronasal organ and its vascular supply are followed by means of India ink injection in serial sections of celloidin-embedded embryos from the eleventh day of gestation up to birth. The anlage of the vomeronasal organ has been established by the twelfth day of gestation (E 12). It appears as a shallow longitudinal impression of the medial wall of the nasal pit. At day E 14, it separates from the epithelium of the primary nasal cavity, forming a tube. The lumen of the organ remains continuous with the nasal cavity frontally, but ends blindly at the edge of the primary palate dorsally. From day E 16 to E 18 the lateral surface of the tubular vomeronasal organ invaginates toward the lumen forming a wide longitudinal furrow. The lumen is bordered by the developing neuroepithelium and receptor-free epithelium by this time. The vomeronasal organ receives a separate arterial blood supply arising from septal tributaries of the olfactory artery, a branch of the anterior cerebral artery from the earliest stage of development. Blood from the vomeronasal complex is collected in the vomeronasal vein lying in the longitudinal furrow next to the receptor-free epithelium. The typical vascular pattern of the vomeronasal organ is established by the eighteenth day of gestation. At this time, the first capillary loops appear within the neuroepithelium and the vomeronasal vein can already be seen to extend along the long axis of the organ.