Steps to obtain individual feather follicles for <i>in vitro</i> culture.

Abstract

In 3-week old White Leghorn chick (A), the contour feathers from two regions (blue arrowheads) (the base of the neck or the thigh) have reached a developmental stage (B, C) before becoming adult contour feathers (D). Note that feathers are heterogenous in their development (B), with feathers just popping-out the outer sheath (red arrowhead) or feathers close to their terminal size. The white zone (white arrowheads) corresponds to cornified rachis containing barbs and barbules (devoid of pulp), which are limited by the outer sheath (B, C); in contrast the pink zone (red arrow) corresponds to live tissue (B). Skin pieces (E) after cutting at the growing feathers (as shown in C, with blue dotted arrow) were soaked into supplemented William’s E medium (see text) (F), and then progressively dissected into individual growing follicles (G, H).</p