Peripheral nerves do not play a trophic role in limb skeletal morphogenesis.

Research was undertaken to test the hypothesis that thalidomide-induced limb defects resulted from damage to the neural crest or peripheral nerves and that normal limb development depends upon either the quality (level specific) or quantity of peripheral nerves. Barriers which were placed into early chick embryos to block brachial plexus-level neural crest cells from reaching the limb resulted in normal limb skeletons. These data agree with previous work in suggesting that skeletal morphology is independent of innervation.