Migratory pathways of HNK-1-immunoreactive neural crest cells in the rat embryo.

In avian embryos, the precursors of the peripheral nervous system, the neural crest cells, migrate along precise pathways limited to the anterior half of each somite and the intersomitic space. This segmental migration foreshadows the development of segmented peripheral ganglia and thus may be critical to normal neuronal development. We report here that a remarkably similar pattern of migration of HNK-1-immunoreactive cells, which we believe to be neural crest cells, exists in the rat embryo, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms of neural crest guidance may be the same in avian and mammalian embryonic development.