How has the study of the origins and development of the neural crest shed light on our understanding of development mechanisms and the origins of development disease?
Define neural crest as the ectodermal cells from the lateral neural plate. They go on to form various parts of the body such as: Skull + teeth, PNS, calcitonin producing cells, parathyroid glands, carotid bodies, spiral septum, adrenal chromaffin cells. They start from the neural tube but during development they migrate . Subsequently the study of these have given greater insight into cell migration mechanisms. Furthermore these neural crest cells are plastic and have allowed for improved understanding into how regulative development occurs. Finally labelling experiments have allowed us to trace the lineage of differentiated cells to form fate maps . This has enabled us to understand the origins of many types of cells are actually neural crest and subsequenty help us to understand why conditions such as DiGeorge’s which causes craniofacial deformities can also cause thyroid gland agenesis and persistent truncus arteriosus. Neural crest fate mappi...