P19 embryonal carcinoma cells: a model system for studying neural tube induction of skeletal myogenesis.

A model experimental system for investigating myogenic induction signals has been devised with mouse P19 embryonal carcinoma cells. When cocultured with pieces of chick neural tube, aggregated P19 cells are induced to become skeletal muscle. The most potent inducing activity is localized to the dorsal neural tube. Less activity was found in the ventral neural tube, notochord, ectoderm, and lateral plate mesoderm, and none was detected in the neural retina. These results suggest that P19 cells may be a useful model system for investigating the mechanisms underlying induction of somite myogenesis.