SECTION IX. HISTOCHIMIE ET EMBRYOLOGIE 



ACQUISITIONS REGARDING 

 ENZYMATIC HISTOCHEMISTRY 

 IN PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT 



F. ROSSI and E. REALE 



Università di Genova, Istituto di Anatoraia Umana Normale 



Researches in enzymatic histochemistry during the prénatal development 

 of man and other animais had, already in 1954, made it possible for Rossi, 

 Pescetto and Reale to affirm that the activities of enzymes are to be 

 introduced, on positive basis, among the factors presiding morphogenesis 

 and histogenesis of the embryo and the foetus. Thèse researchers, though 

 not neglecting investigations other than on man, hâve related particularly 

 their expériences in the human field. From 1954 to the présent time, 

 studies in activities in the embryo and in the foetus, also in the very 

 earliest stages of its development, hâve multiplied both in the biochemical 

 and in the histochemical field proving this to be an extremely fertile and 

 most interesting ground and demonstrating that the collaboration of well 

 known morphogenetic factors, as for istance the organizing centres, and 

 of other not yet revealed relies on cellular processes which, more and 

 more numerous, identify themselves with the group of chemical reactions 

 catalyzed by enzymes. 



Many other enzymes revealed by new techniques can be added today 

 to those (non spécifie alkaline phosphathases, acid phosphathases, non 

 spécifie estecases, succinicdehydrogenase) the intervention of which 

 during development was illustrated by Rossi, Pescetto and Reale. Further- 

 more the improving of earlier techniques has led to a more exact qualifica- 

 tion and localization of reactions. 



Thèse récent acquisitions, although not substantially modifying the 

 conclusions reached in 1954 by Rossi, Pescetto and Reale, hâve intro- 

 duced a quantity of new data both on man and on other animais, which 

 datashould be known and on which Rossi and Reale raport on the occasion 

 of the First International Congress of Histochemistry. 



- 261 - 



