Cytological and microspectrophotometric analysis of mesodermalized explants of Triturus gastrula ectoderm

Using isolated presumptive ectoderm of the newt (Triturus pyrrhogaster) embryos as a reactor and extract of rat bone marrow as a mesodermal inductor, changes of cell number and mitotic index of the reactor cells were studied. In early stages of cultivation the increase in cell number in the mesodermalized ectodermal piece was slower than in the non-mesodermalized epidermal piece; but after 24 h it showed abrupt increase and reached a cell population equal to that of the control at 48 h of cultivation. In the experimental series, the mitotic index was 0 at 4 h after the application of the inducing stimulus, but increased precipitously in the next 8 h and reached a level of 4·4% at 12 h and thereafter decreased gradually. The cell cycle stopped at the S phase and stayed in it for several hours after the application of inductor. A sudden fall in cell number, observed in the mesodermalized epidermal piece between the 4th and the 8th h after the application of inducing stimulus, seems to be attributable to cell death which was brought about by the inducing stimulus. In the histogenetic process phases of repression on mitosis by an inducing stimulus, cell proliferation and nonproliferation seem to succeed each other.