sympathetic gangliogenesis and temporo-spatial glycoconjugates’s terminal sugars distribution

lectin binding histochemistry was performed on the developing sympathetic ganglionic cells to investigate the distribution and density of defined carbohydrate terminals on the cell surface glycoproteins during autonomic system morphogenesis. sprague-dauley rat embryos from 9th gestational day to birth were fixed and paraffinized. serial sections of these specimens were incubated with different lectins, which were conjugated to horse raddish peroxidase (hrp). diaminobenzidine was used to localize the hrp on the binding sites of lectins to terminal sugars. among these lectins, soybean agglutinin reacted with migratory neural crest cells in early stages, from 9th to 13th day of gestation. these cells were moving ventrally in relation to the neural tube. in the late stages from days 14th to 21st, orange peel fungus agglutinin reacted with sympathetic migratory cells. our results suggest that at each stage of sympathetic ganglia development, a specific glycoconjugate seems to be the key factor for development of the cells. we suggest that only one key specific terminal sugar is active in each stage of development, which might genetically regulated for particular stage of sympathetic gangliogenesis