An organizing function of basement membranes in the developing nervous system.

•Transplantation of adult human basement membranes into chick embryos.•BMs as a border for migrating neural crest cells and growing axons.•Side-specific binding of host ECM proteins onto the implanted basement membranes.•Side-selective contact of axons and neural crest cells with the basement membranes.•Side-specific arrangement of the tissue architecture by the implanted BMs.