Proliferation and apoptosis in the mouse vomeronasal organ during ontogeny

Differential cell proliferation and apoptosis play a key role in organ morphogenesis. We have analyzed these two processes in the development of murine vomeronasal organ (VNO), an olfactory structure involved in the detection of pheromones. Using the TUNEL (TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labelling) method we demonstrate that dying cells are relatively more abundant in non sensory vomeronasal organ (NS-VNO) rather than in sensory epithelium (S-VNO), particularly in early stages of development. During ontogeny cell proliferation, studied with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labelling, shows a broad pattern of localization, since proliferating cells are distributed throughout the VNO and not confined between NS-VNO and S-VNO. Quantification of BrdU-labelled cells indicates that proliferation is rather stable in both components.