Electron microscopical study of self-differentiation potency in the chick embryonic endoderm cultured in vitro

The self-differentiation potency of the endoderm of the chick embryo was investigated mainly by transmission electron microscopy. Endodermal fragments isolated from 4- to 6-day stomach or small intestine were cultured in the absence of mesenchyme and were able to differentiate in vitro into organ-specific epithelia. Endodermal fragments isolated from the stomach region differentiated into a pseudo-stratified epithelium with periodic acid Schiff-positive mucous granules in the apical cytoplasm, while those from the small intestinal region differentiated into a simple columnar epithelium with a striated border which was positive in alkaline phosphatase activity. These features are comparable with those of the mucous secretory epithelium of the normal embryonic stomach and the absorptive epithelium of normal embryonic small intestine, respectively. Next, the self-differentiation potencies were investigated of the upper and lower layers of the blastoderms, at stages 1-5 of Hamburger and Hamilton (H. and H.). Both stomach-type and small-intestine-type epithelia developed only when fragments of the lower layer isolated from the blastoderms older than stage 3 of H. and H. were cultured, suggesting that cells possessing the potency to differentiate into the stomach- and small-intestine-type epithelia exist in the definitive endoderm at the beginning of its formation.