SEM characterization of a cellular layer separating blood vessels from endoderm in the quail embryo

The associations between the developing blood vessels and both endoderm and splanchnic mesoderm in quail embryos at stages 9-11 were examined by using scanning electron microscopy. Embryos were pinned ventral-side up on agar plates and the endoderm was surgically removed prior to fixation and dehydration. This procedure exposes a netlike layer of cells closely apposed to the ventral surface of paraxial mesoderm and all visible blood vessels; we are calling this the subvascular layer. Development of this layer proceeds rostral-to-caudal, and lateral-to-medial, with the earliest stages of formation being visible over the unsegmented paraxial mesoderm of the segmental plate. The subvascular layer increases markedly in density slightly medial to the innermost boundary of the intraembryonic vascular plexus. Cells of this layer eventually establish a continuous sheet beneath the lateral plate and paraxial mesoderm and the notochord. With maturation, the cells of the subvascular layer approach confluence. The spatial and temporal patterns of development of the embryonic vascular tissues and the subvascular layer are closely correlated, suggesting a possible role for the subvascular layer in normal embryonic vascular development.