Relationships between neural crest cells and serotonin in newborn mice.

The experimental newborn mice injected intraperitoneally with serotonin within 24 h after birth and survived up to 2-days showed multiple APUDomas, hyperplasia, heterotopic melanin pigmentation and the cell death of neural crest cells. Further, the degeneration occurred in the Auerbach, Meisner nerve plexus, autonomic ganglia. The flocculent densities were seen in the brain, and in the pulps and the periodontal membrane of teeth. It is thought that these phenomena may be associated with not only cyclic AMP but also calcium, and that neural crest cells may be autoreceptor.