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The mechanism of lens placode formation: a case of matrix-mediated morphogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Although placodes are ubiquitous precursors of tissue invagination, the mechanism of placode formation has not been established and the requirement of placode formation for subsequent invagination has not been tested. Earlier measurements in chicken embryos supported the view that lens placode formation occurs because the extracellular matrix (ECM) between the optic vesicle and the surface ectoderm prevents the prospective lens cells from spreading. Continued cell proliferation within this restricted area was proposed to cause cell crowding, leading to cell elongation (placode formation). This view suggested that continued cell proliferation and adhesion to the ECM between the optic vesicle and the surface ectoderm was sufficient to explain lens placode formation. To test the predictions of this "restricted expansion hypothesis," we first confirmed that the cellular events that accompany lens placode formation in chicken embryos also occur in mouse embryos. We then showed that the failure of lens placode formation when the transcription factor, Pax6 was conditionally deleted in the surface ectoderm was associated with greatly diminished accumulation of ECM between the optic vesicle and ectoderm and reduced levels of transcripts encoding components of the ECM. In accord with the "restricted expansion hypothesis," the Pax6-deleted ectoderm expanded, rather than being constrained to a constant area. As a further test, we disrupted the ECM by deleting Fn1, which is required for matrix assembly and cell-matrix adhesion. As in Pax6(CKO) embryos, the Fn1(CKO) lens ectoderm expanded, rather than being constrained to a fixed area and the lens placode did not form. Ectoderm cells in Fn1(CKO) embryos expressed markers of lens induction and reorganized their cytoskeleton as in wild type ectoderm, but did not invaginate, suggesting that placode formation establishes the minimal mechanical requirements for invagination.

SUBMITTER: Huang J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3104088 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The mechanism of lens placode formation: a case of matrix-mediated morphogenesis.

Huang Jie J Rajagopal Ramya R Liu Ying Y Dattilo Lisa K LK Shaham Ohad O Ashery-Padan Ruth R Beebe David C DC

Developmental biology 20110421 1

Although placodes are ubiquitous precursors of tissue invagination, the mechanism of placode formation has not been established and the requirement of placode formation for subsequent invagination has not been tested. Earlier measurements in chicken embryos supported the view that lens placode formation occurs because the extracellular matrix (ECM) between the optic vesicle and the surface ectoderm prevents the prospective lens cells from spreading. Continued cell proliferation within this restr ...[more]

PMID: 21540023

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Project description:The vertebrate peripheral nervous system contains sensory neurons that arise from ectodermal placodes. Placodal cells ingress to move inside the head to form sensory neurons of the cranial ganglia. To date, however, the process of placodal cell ingression and underlying cellular behavior are poorly understood as studies have relied upon static analyses on fixed tissues. Visualizing placodal cell behavior requires an ability to distinguish the surface ectoderm from the underlying mesenchyme. This necessitates high resolution imaging along the z-plane which is difficult to accomplish in whole embryos. To address this issue, we have developed an imaging system using cranial slices that allows direct visualization of placode formation.We demonstrate an effective imaging assay for capturing placode development at single cell resolution using chick embryonic tissue ex vivo. This provides the first time-lapse imaging of mitoses in the trigeminal placodal ectoderm, ingression, and intercellular contacts of placodal cells. Cell divisions with varied orientations were found in the placodal ectoderm all along the apical-basal axis. Placodal cells initially have short cytoplasmic processes during ingression as young neurons and mature over time to elaborate long axonal processes in the mesenchyme. Interestingly, the time-lapse imaging data reveal that these delaminating placodal neurons begin ingression early on from within the ectoderm, where they start to move and continue on to exit as individual or strings of neurons through common openings on the basal side of the epithelium. Furthermore, dynamic intercellular contacts are abundant among the delaminating placodal neurons, between these and the already delaminated cells, as well as among cells in the forming ganglion.This new imaging assay provides a powerful method to analyze directly development of placode-derived sensory neurons and subsequent ganglia formation for the first time in amniotes. Viewing placode development in a head cross-section provides a vantage point from which it is possible to study comprehensive events in placode formation, from differentiation, cell ingression to ganglion assembly. Understanding how placodal neurons form may reveal a new mechanism of neurogenesis distinct from that in the central nervous system and provide new insight into how cells acquire motility from a stationary epithelial cell type.

Project description:Previous studies suggested that FGF signaling is important for lens formation. However, the times at which FGFs act to promote lens formation, the FGFs that are involved, the cells that secrete them and the mechanisms by which FGF signaling may promote lens formation are not known. We found that transcripts encoding several FGF ligands and the four classical FGF receptors are detectable in the lens-forming ectoderm at the time of lens induction. Conditional deletion of Fgfr1 and Fgfr2 from this tissue resulted in the formation of small lens rudiments that soon degenerated. Lens placodes lacking Fgfr1 and 2 were thinner than in wild-type embryos. Deletion of Fgfr2 increased cell death from the initiation of placode formation and concurrent deletion of Fgfr1 enhanced this phenotype. Fgfr1/2 conditional knockout placode cells expressed lower levels of proteins known to be regulated by FGF receptor signaling, but proteins known to be important for lens formation were present at normal levels in the remaining placode cells, including the transcription factors Pax6, Sox2 and FoxE3 and the lens-preferred protein ?A-crystallin. Previous studies identified a genetic interaction between BMP and FGF signaling in lens formation and conditional deletion of Bmpr1a caused increased cell death in the lens placode, resulting in the formation of smaller lenses. In the present study, conditional deletion of both Bmpr1a and Fgfr2 increased cell death beyond that seen in Fgfr2(CKO) placodes and prevented lens formation. These results suggest that the primary role of autocrine or paracrine FGF signaling is to provide essential survival signals to lens placode cells. Because apoptosis was already increased at the onset of placode formation in Fgfr1/2 conditional knockout placode cells, FGF signaling was functionally absent during the period of lens induction by the optic vesicle. Since the expression of proteins required for lens formation was not altered in the knockout placode cells, we can conclude that FGF signaling from the optic vesicle is not required for lens induction.

Dataset Information

The mechanism of lens placode formation: a case of matrix-mediated morphogenesis.

Publications

The mechanism of lens placode formation: a case of matrix-mediated morphogenesis.

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