Immunohistochemical demonstration of cytokeratin in human embryonic neurons arising from placodes.

Sensory neurons of the olfactory, trigeminal, facial, vestibulo-cochlear, glossopharyngeal and vagal nerves, and neurons migrating along the olfactory nerve to the brain have special anlagen, made up of placodes located in the epithelial layer. To investigate the characteristic phenotype of placode-derived neurons, immunohistochemical analysis of intermediate filaments was conducted on formalin-fixed human embryonic tissues. Neurons arising from placodes including luteinizing-hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) neurons migrating from the olfactory placode to the brain had immunoreactivity to antibodies specific to cytokeratin, AE1 and CAM5.2 during the embryonic stage. However, this immunoreactivity disappeared during the late embryonic to the post-embryonic stage and was not observed in the roots of these nerves in the post-natal stage. Immunoreactivity was detected in both the somata and processes, and the distribution differed from that described in rodent brain neurons. With this exception, no other human peripheral neurons, including spinal dorsal root ganglia, had immunoreactivity with anti-cytokeratin antibodies throughout the entire developmental stage. Although the cephalic neural crest also directly generates neurons to most of the cranial sensory ganglia, we could not find any evidence that it contributed to the genesis of cytokeratin-positive embryonic neurons. We concluded that cytokeratin is an intermediate filament common to human embryonic neurons of cephalic placodal origin and that this immunohistochemical marker may be useful in analyzing the developmental sequence of several congenital diseases involving the cranial nerves, such as Moebius syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome.