Early embryonic angiogenesis in the chick area vasculosa

The rate and pattern of growth as well as vessel ultrastructure of the area vasculosa were examined in the chick. The embryos were grown in shell-less culture after 3 d in ovo and staged according to Hamburger & Hamilton (1951) and the rate of increase in the diameter of the area vasculosa was measured. This revealed an increase in the area vasculosa diameter of 0.4 +/- 0.02 mm h-1 (n = 62) for embryos between stages 15 and 20. To determine the growth pattern of the sinus terminalis (the advancing edge of the area vasculosa), a marked length of the sinus was photographed at hourly intervals over a period of 9 h. It was found that this vessel grows by new vessels forming external to the sinus in the form of parallel plexuses, one of which then replaces the original sinus as the major route of bloodflow. Ultrastructurally the capillaries of the area vasculosa were simple tubes of endothelial cells, lacking a basement membrane. The endothelial cell cytoplasm contained only a few organelles, mainly mitochondria and rough endoplasmic reticulum. These findings indicate that the chick area vasculosa capillaries bear similar structural and growth characteristics to those associated with tumour angiogenesis and suggest that they may prove to be a useful model system for studying the factors involved in pathological angiogenesis.