The response of the satellite and other non-neuronal cells to the degeneration of neuroblasts in chick embryo spinal ganglia.

The responses of non-neuronal cells to the degeneration of neuroblasts were studied in the spinal ganglia of the chick embryo. Reactive changes of the non-neuronal cells were not apparent during the early stage of degeneration of the neuroblast, but during the later stages of degeneration evidence was found suggesting that non-neuronal cells subdivided and phagocytosed the affected neuroblasts. Three types of non-neuronal cells appeared to participate in the phagocytosis: satellite cells, cells resembling undifferentiated elements, and macrophages. The appearance of the latter coincided with the beginning of the vascularization of the ganglionic rudiment. The phagocytic capacity of satellite cells is discussed in the light of these and other studies by light and electron microscopy.