Daneo_1981_J.Submicrosc.Cytol_13_183

In the presomitic stage chick embryo filopodia establish contacts between neural groove cells and those of the presumed heart area. A few hours later, neural crest cells run along the interfaces between the mesothelium and the pharyngeal endodermal cells. Evidence of the transformation of mesothelial cells into myoblasts and appearance of a positive Karnovsky reaction for AChE coincides with this dorso-ventral migration. Exploratory nerve fibres, also contact with the crest cells, do not appear at the site of the first para-aortic sympathetic ganglion buds, and up to the mouth of the syplanchnopharyngeal corridor until the 48th-52nd h. An assessment is made of the significance of crest cells, most of which are destined to become postgangliar neurons, as inducers of the cardiac myogenic line. The possibility that the first contact between the neural groove and the presumed heart area may be of decisive influence, however, is no discarded.