Tissue origins and interactions in the mammalian skull vault.
Open accessAbstract
During mammalian evolution, expansion of the cerebral hemispheres was accompanied by expansion of the frontal and parietal bones of the skull vault and deployment of the coronal (fronto-parietal) and sagittal (parietal-parietal) sutures as major growth centres. Using a transgenic mouse with a permanent neural crest cell lineage marker, Wnt1-Cre/R26R, we show that both sutures are formed at a neural crest-mesoderm interface: the frontal bones are neural crest-derived and the parietal bones mesodermal, with a tongue of neural crest between the two parietal bones. By detailed analysis of neural crest migration pathways using X-gal staining, and mesodermal tracing by DiI labelling, we show that the neural crest-mesodermal tissue juxtaposition that later forms the coronal suture is established at E9.5 as the caudal boundary of the frontonasal mesenchyme. As the cerebral hemispheres expand, they extend caudally, passing beneath the neural crest-mesodermal interface within the dermis, carrying with them a layer of neural crest cells that forms their meningeal covering. Exposure of embryos to retinoic acid at E10.0 reduces this meningeal neural crest and inhibits parietal ossification, suggesting that intramembranous ossification of this mesodermal bone requires interaction with neural crest-derived meninges, whereas ossification of the neural crest-derived frontal bone is autonomous. These observations provide new perspectives on skull evolution and on human genetic abnormalities of skull growth and ossification.
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Meningeal fibroblasts in different CNS regions have different origins; forebrain meningeal fibroblasts are neural crest derived whereas mid-, hindbrain and spinal cord meninges are derived from the mesoderm.
“Meningeal fibroblasts in different CNS regions have different origins; forebrain meningeal fibroblasts are neural crest derived whereas mid-, hindbrain and spinal cord meninges are derived from the mesoderm (Jiang et al., 2002; Yoshida et al., 2008).”
From Living on the Edge of the CNS: Meninges Cell Diversity in Health and Disease (2021) · cites this paper as Jiang et al., 2002
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- Authors
- Jiang, X., Iseki, S., Maxson, R. E., Sucov, H. M., & Morriss-Kay, G. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Tokyo Medical and Dental University (JP)
- Venue
- Developmental Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2002-01
- Volume
- 241
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 106-116
- ISSN
- 0012-1606 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2137256580
- Cited by
- 782
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 42
- FWCI
- 13.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- American Heart Association
- Human Frontier Science Program
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (12671764)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Craniofacial Disorders and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Keywords
- skull vault, cranial sutures, coronal suture, sagittal suture, neural crest, mesoderm, neural crest migration, frontal bone, retinoic acid, intramembranous ossification, cerebral hemispheres, skull evolution, craniosynostosis, mouse embryo
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Cranial Sutures, Biological Evolution, Genetic Markers, Meninges, Mesoderm, Mice, Transgenic, Neural Crest, Osteogenesis, Parietal Bone, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Skull, Tretinoin, Body Patterning, Zebrafish Proteins, Wnt Proteins, Wnt1 Protein, Mice
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