Steroid-dependent survival of identifiable neurons in cultured ganglia of the moth Manduca sexta.

Adult emergence at the end of metamorphosis in the moth Manduca sexta is followed by the death of abdominal interneurons and motoneurons. Abdominal ganglia removed from insects before this period of naturally occurring cell death and maintained in vitro showed neuronal death confined to the same cells that normally die in vivo. Addition of physiological levels of the steroid 20-hydroxyecdysone to the culture system prevented the selective death of these motoneurons.