Indirect immunofluorescent staining of fibronectin associated with the floor of the foregut during formation and rupture of the oral membrane in the chick embryo.

The distribution of the glycoprotein, fibronectin, within the cranial region of stage 8--16 chick embryos was examined by indirect immunofluorescence using paraffin sections exposed to affinity-purified rabbit anti-human CIG and FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulins. Fluorescence was present within the matrix surrounding the cranial mesenchyme, along the basal surfaces of all epithelia, and surrounding the notochord at all stages. Fluorescence associated with the floor of the foregut was particularly intense. The fluorescent layers beneath the ectoderm and endoderm of the oral (oropharyngeal) membrane at stage 8 merged into a single, continuous, intensely fluorescent line as the extracellular space within the oral membrane narrowed during stages 9--12. This line of uniform fluorescence parallels the previously described histological reorganization of the extracellular compartment of the oral membrane, but the ultrastructural localization of this fluorescent material remains unknown. Fluorescence was also intense beneath the foregut endoderm in the presumptive cardiac region caudal to the oral membrane and was continuous with strands of fluorescent material extending into the matrix of the dorsal mesocardium and cardiac jelly of the developing tubular heart. These observations indicate that the extracellular matrix associated with the floor of the entire foregut contains fibronectin during stages encompassing the formation and rupture of the oral membrane. The presence of fibronectin within the oral membrane and dorsal mesocardium, as well as between Rathke's pouch and infundibulum and within the closing plates between ectodermal clefts and endodermal pouches, is consistent with the possibility that this glycoprotein may play a role in adhesion at these sites.