Ontogenetic development of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)-containing neural elements in the brain of the chicken during incubation and after hatching.

In chicken embryos of different ages and in young chickens after hatching, neural elements reacting with antibodies generated against synthetic ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) were studied by means of the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase (PAP) technique at the light-microscopic level. CRF-immunoreactivity was first observed in perikarya located in the periventricular part of the hypothalamus on the 14th day of the incubation period. CRF-containing neural elements were detected on the same day of incubation in the external zone of the median eminence, but not in all investigated animals. In extrahypothalamic sites, immunoreactive perikarya were demonstrable in the central gray of the mesencephalon on the 15th day of incubation. Furthermore, immunoreactive cells appeared in other brain regions such as nucleus accumbens and dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus after hatching. The present observations provide information regarding the functional development of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-adrenal axis in the chick embryo.