The sensory olfactory epithelium and the vomeronasal sensory epithelium (VSE) are characterized by continuous turnover of the receptor cells during postnatal life and are capable of regeneration after injury. The VSE, like the entire vomeronasal organ, is generally well developed in squamates and is crucial for detection of pheromones and prey odors. Despite the numerous studies on embryonic development of the VSE in squamates, especially in snakes, an ultrastructural analysis, as far as we know, has never been performed. Therefore, we investigated the embryology of the VSE of the grass snake (Natrix natrix) using electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) and light microscopy. As was shown for adult snakes, the hypertrophied ophidian VSE may provide great resolution of changes in neuron morphology located at various epithelial levels. The results of this study suggest that different populations of stem/progenitor cells occur at the base of the ophidian VSE during embryonic development. One of them may be radial glia-like cells, described previously in mouse. The various structure and ultrastructure of neurons located at different parts of the VSE provide evidence for neuronal maturation and aging. Based on these results, a few non-mutually exclusive hypotheses explaining the formation of the peculiar columnar organization of the VSE in snakes were proposed.

中文翻译：

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草蛇 Natrix natrix (Squamata: Colubroidea) 中发育中的犁鼻感觉上皮的结构和超微结构研究

感觉嗅觉上皮和犁鼻感觉上皮 (VSE) 的特点是在出生后受体细胞的持续更新，并且能够在受伤后再生。VSE 与整个犁鼻器官一样，在有鳞动物中通常发育良好，对于检测信息素和猎物气味至关重要。尽管对有鳞动物，尤其是蛇的 VSE 胚胎发育进行了大量研究，但据我们所知，从未进行过超微结构分析。因此，我们使用电子显微镜（SEM 和 TEM）和光学显微镜研究了草蛇 (Natrix natrix) VSE 的胚胎学。正如成年蛇所显示的那样，肥大的蛇纹石 VSE 可以为位于不同上皮水平的神经元形态变化提供很大的分辨率。这项研究的结果表明，在胚胎发育过程中，蛇蝎 VSE 的底部会出现不同的干/祖细胞群。其中之一可能是之前在小鼠中描述的放射状胶质细胞样细胞。位于 VSE 不同部位的神经元的各种结构和超微结构为神经元的成熟和衰老提供了证据。基于这些结果，提出了一些非互斥的假设来解释蛇中 VSE 的特殊柱状组织的形成。位于 VSE 不同部位的神经元的各种结构和超微结构为神经元的成熟和衰老提供了证据。基于这些结果，提出了一些非互斥的假设来解释蛇中 VSE 的特殊柱状组织的形成。位于 VSE 不同部位的神经元的各种结构和超微结构为神经元的成熟和衰老提供了证据。基于这些结果，提出了一些非互斥的假设来解释蛇中 VSE 的特殊柱状组织的形成。