Contact behaviour exhibited by migrating neural crest cells in confrontation culture with somitic cells.

When grown in confrontation culture on a planar substratum, avian neural crest cells and somite cells display both homotypic and heterotypic contact inhibition of movement as judged by analysis of time-lapse video recordings of locomotory and contact behaviour, and by use of a nuclear overlap assay. It is therefore unlikely that migration of neural crest cells within the embryo, and within embryonic tissues, can be explained on the basis of a lack of contact inhibition. The results are discussed in the general context of cell invasiveness.