The role of interstitial cells in the maintenance of hydra. I. Specific destruction of interstitial cells in normal, asexual, non-budding animals

✍ Scribed by Diehl, Fred A. ;Burnett, Allison L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1964
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 931 KB
• Volume: 155
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401550212

✦ Synopsis

The cell type with which we are concerned in this study is the interstitial cell of hydra. In contrast to other cell types in the organism, such as gland cells and cnidoblasts, interstitial cells have been called "embryonic" by many investigators (Tannreuther, '09; Schultz, '18; Kanajew, '30; Brien and Reniers-Decoen, '55). This is because they retain a high mitotic rate in the adult organism and are reportedly capable of differentiating into more specialized cell types such as gland cells, nerve cells, cnidoblasts, and gametes (Klienenberg, 1872;Brauer, 1891; Gelei, '24; Kanajew, '26a, '26b; Strelin, '28; Brien, '49, '50). Cells with similar properties are found in adult organisms of other phyla and are usually referred to as neoblasts.

Interstitial cells are autoreproductive (Schlottke, '30) and appear in clusters. A single cluster may consist of 8-16 cells. Because they have been thought to differentiate into several distinct cell types, they have been described as totipotent (Lang, 1892(Lang, , 1894;; Hadzi, 'lo). However, no one has ever demonstrated conclusively that interstitial cells are truly totipotent.

Although it has been shown that hydra cannot maintain themselves indefinitely without interstitial cells (Brien and Reniews-Decoen, ' 5 5 ) , this observation in no way reflects their capacity for differentiation.

The technique of removing interstitial cells by x-rays as described by Brien and Reniers-Decoen, although valuable, is laborious and time-consuming. Each treatment lasts 14 minutes, and only four