Angioblasts (or vasoformative cells) are

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

nic cells from which the endothelium of

blood vessel The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away ...

s arises. They are derived from embryonic

mesoderm The mesoderm is the middle layer of the three germ layers that develops during gastrulation in the very early development of the embryo of most animals. The outer layer is the ectoderm, and the inner layer is the endoderm.Langman's Medical E ...

. Blood vessels first make their appearance in several scattered vascular areas that are developed simultaneously between the

endoderm Endoderm is the innermost of the three primary germ layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm (outside layer) and mesoderm (middle layer). Cells migrating inward along the archenteron form the inner layer of the gast ...

and the

of the

yolk-sac The yolk sac is a membranous sac attached to an embryo, formed by cells of the hypoblast layer of the bilaminar embryonic disc. This is alternatively called the umbilical vesicle by the Terminologia Embryologica (TE), though ''yolk sac'' is far ...

, i. e., outside the body of the

. Here a new type of cell, the angioblast, is differentiated from the mesoderm. These cells as they divide form small, dense

syncytial A syncytium (; plural syncytia; from Greek: σύν ''syn'' "together" and κύτος ''kytos'' "box, i.e. cell") or symplasm is a multinucleate cell which can result from multiple cell fusions of uninuclear cells (i.e., cells with a single nucleus) ...

masses, which soon join with similar masses by means of fine processes to form

plexuses In neuroanatomy, a plexus (from the Latin term for "braid") is a branching network of vessels or nerves. The vessels may be blood vessels (veins, capillaries) or lymphatic vessels. The nerves are typically axons outside the central nervous system. ...

. They form capillaries through

vasculogenesis Vasculogenesis is the process of blood vessel formation, occurring by a '' de novo'' production of endothelial cells. It is sometimes paired with angiogenesis, as the first stage of the formation of the vascular network, closely followed by angio ...

and

angiogenesis Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature by processes of sprouting and splitting ...

. Angioblasts are one of the two products formed from

hemangioblasts Hemangioblasts are the multipotent precursor cells that can differentiate into both hematopoietic and endothelial cells. In the mouse embryo, the emergence of blood islands in the yolk sac at embryonic day 7 marks the onset of hematopoiesis. From ...

(the other being multipotential hemopoietic stem cells).

References

External links

*
Diagram at uiowa.edu

Alternative Sources Of Angioblasts
Embryology {{Portal bar, Anatomy

See also

See also

References

External links