Figure 5.

Development of the neural crest cells (NCC) during early embryogenesis at a 4-week-old embryo from neuroectoderm. The neuroectodermal cells proliferate, form the neural plate that folds, fuses and changes into neural tube (A, B). During this neurulation process, cells from edges (crests) of the neural plate separate from the neural tube as independent population of embryonic cells named neural crest cells, that is located above the neural tube (future brain and spinal cord) and beneath surface ectoderm (future epidermis) (C)