Abstract
Pigment cell differentiation was studied in cell cultures derived from 14โday embryonic mouse skin, and in cultures of dermal or epidermal skin cells. Cell cultures from dissociated whole skin produced melanocytes in very small numbers, and they were always present in association with groups of epithelialโlike cells. Cell cultures from dissociated dermis produced no melanocytes during the three week culture period.
Epidermal cultures established from mechanically produced small aggregates of cells first formed melanocytes after 30 hours in culture, and large numbers of melanocytes were present after two days. Epidermal cells, in contrast to other cells, did not survive in culture beyond 11 days, and consequently surviving populations of pure melanocytes were left remaining on the plate surface. Epidermal cultures prepared from albino embryos resulted in amelanotic melanocyte populations remaining following the epidermal cell death. Epidermal cell cultures from whiteโspotting mutant embryos (W/W and S1/S1) left no cells on the plate recognizable as being of the pigment cell lineage. The enhancement of melanoblast differentiation by epidermal cells, and the relationship between melanocytes and epidermal cells revealed in cell culture may be useful in the analysis of early stages of melanoblast differentiation, and in the study of mechanisms of gene action involved in this process.