ABSTRACT
The epithelio-mesenchymal relations during the gastric organogenesis of the rabbit foetus
The experimental study of the epithelio-mesenchymal relations during the gastric organogenesis shows the following facts:
Completely deprived of mesenchyme, the cultured or grafted isolated epithelium cannot develop.
On the other hand the mesenchyme free of epithelium can survive and differentiate its muscular layer. Isolated after the 18th day, it possesses sufficient autonomy to form chorionic villi when covered only by vitelline membrane.
The epithelium and the mesenchyme, dissociated by treatment with trypsin, then reassociated in culture (with or without subsequent grafting), develop identically to those of untreated controls. From the 19th day the mesenchyme shows a polarity and only the zone normally adjacent to the epithelium can form chorionic villi.
The heterochronic associations of gastric epithelium and mesenchyme demonstrate the existence of two types of mesenchymal inductors: (a) a primary inductor, responsible for the epithelial morphogenesis, elaborated early in embryonic life (10th day); it acts till about the 21st day. (b) A secondary inductor, produced at a later time (15th day), provokes the epithelial cytodifferentiation; its activity is still strong at the 23rd day.
These experiments again show the early competence of the epithelium to react to the two mesenchymal inductors. The presumptive gastric endoderm of the 10-day-old rabbit foetus has a developmental potential such that it can respond as well to the stimuli elaborated by a young mesenchyme as to those of an older mesenchyme.
