Guidance of Neural Crest Cell Migration: The Inhibitory Function of the Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan, Versican

Neural crest cells are specialized multipotent embryonic stem cells found exclusively in vertebrates[1,2,3]. During embryonic development, these cells arise from the dorsal neural tube, undergo epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and subsequently migrate along stereotyped pathways to reach specific tissue targets, where they differentiate into a wide variety of cell types, such as glia and neurons of the peripheral nervous system, melanocytes, smooth muscle cells, craniofacial cartilage and bone tissues, or chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. In the trunk region, the ventrally migrating neural crest cells move through the somitic mesenchyme in a segmented pattern, presumably setting the basis for the metameric organization of sensory and sympathetic ganglia along the anterior-posterior axis later in development[4].