Epithelial scatter factor and development of the chick embryonic axis

Scatter factor, a recently characterised protein secreted by certain embryonic fibroblasts, affects cultured epithelial by increasing cell motility, the breakdown of cell junctions and cell scattering. The process of gastrulation in higher vertebrate embryos, during which the primitive streak forms, involves an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformation resembling the effects of the factor on cultured cells. The factor was applied locally to chick embryos, using both scatter-factor-secreting cell lines and inert carriers. We found that scatter factor can generate local supernumerary axial structures resembling primitive streak and/or neural plate and conclude that it may have primitive-streak and/or neural-inducing activity in chick embryos.