Graded morphogenetic patterns during the development of the extraembryonic blood system and coelom of the chick...

This scanning electron- and light-microscopic study traces the morphogenesis of the yolk-sac vascular system and extraembryonic coelom in the chick blastoderm. The fate of the mesodermal cells in both the area opaca vasculosa (AOV) and the area pellucida (AP) is followed, and the cellular patterning in these two areas is compared. We describe new details of the formation of coelom lining in the AOV, and new observations of the tendency of the intravascular blood island cells of the AOV to become flattened and attenuated. The morphogenesis of the blood system and coelom is analyzed in terms of polarized morphological patterns with coordinates in two modes:proximodistal (from the AP to the AOV) and dorsoventral (from the ectoderm to the endoderm). By highlighting differences in the methods of formation of blood vessels and coelom lining in the AP and AOV, this paper resolves some paradoxes in the literature.