The cephalic neural crest provides pericytes and smooth muscle cells to all blood vessels of the face and forebrain

Etchevers, Heather C.; Vincent, Christine; Douarin, Nicole M. Le; F. Couly, Gérard

doi:10.1242/dev.128.7.1059

The cephalic neural crest provides pericytes and smooth muscle cells to all blood vessels of the face and forebrain

Most connective tissues in the head develop from neural crest cells (NCCs), an embryonic cell population present only in vertebrates. We show that NCC-derived pericytes and smooth muscle cells are distributed in a sharply circumscribed sector of the vasculature of the avian embryo. As NCCs detach…