Transplants of olfactory mucosa in the rat brain I. A light microscopic study of transplant organization.

ABSTRACT

Olfactory mucosa from neonatal rats has been transplanted into the fourth cerebral ventricle or into the parietal cortex of neonatal and adult rats. In these ectopic locations, olfactory neurons continue to differentiate from the neurogenetic matrix (basal cells) of the neuroepithelium. Sensory axon bundles from the newly formed olfactory neurons penetrate the host brain where they branch without forming the characteristic olfactory glomeruli. From the base of the neuroepithelium neural elements migrate into the host cerebral tissue losing their epithelial organization.