Alteration of cell shape in the early chick embryo mesoderm by neuraminidase

Summary Living chick embryo mesoderm cells (stages 3 to 5) were exposed to neuraminidase. The mesoderm cells changed shape losing their long thin processes and become like primitive streak cells, with short flat processes. Ruthenium red staining of such treated embryos shows that the surface coat on the mesoderm cells is reduced in thickness. These results show that cell shape in the chick embryo mesoderm is at least partly determined by the thickness and the composition of the surface coat.Acknowledgment. It is a pleasure to thank Professor F. Beck for the facilities of the Department of Anatomy, University of Leicester, and Mr. G. L. C. McTurk of the University of Leicester Scanning Electron Microscope Unit for operating the ISI 60 SEM. Mr Jeff Smith and Mrs Doris Duncan gave us valuable technical assistance and Dr. A. J. Rowe kindly allowed us to use the facilities of the Electron Microscope Unit, University of Leicester School of Biological Sciences, in specimen preparation.     

A simple method for cultivating the early chick embryo in vitro

Summary A method for cultivating the early chick embryo in an artificial medium has been developed that permits the determination of the stage at the onset of the treatment and the continuous observation of the embryogenesis.Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet, Lund, supported this work.     

Automatic assay of the distribution of3H-,14C- and32P-labelled compounds within an early chick embryo by a semiconductor detector

Zusammenfassung Es wird eine Halbleiterdetektor-Methode beschrieben, durch die ein gleichzeitiger Nachweis der Verteilung von³H-,¹⁴C- und³²P-markierten Stoffen in Somitten des Hühnerembryons ermöglicht wird. Nachweisvorgang sowie Registrierung werden mittels eines dem System angeschlossenen Computers programmiert.