The formation of the embryonic mesoderm in the early post-implantation mouse embryo

摘要

The formation of the mesoderm in early post-implantation mouse embryos is described and analysed. The outgrowth of the mesoderm was found to depend on the changes in the shape of the embryonic ectoderm, which lead to a relative displacement of the primitive streak in the caudal direction. The primitive streak deposits its cells laterally in the case of the lateral mesoderm, and medially in the case of the headprocess. In doing so, the primitive streak leaves a trail of mesoderm cells. This means that mesoderm cells do not migrate actively from the caudally located primitive streak towards more frontal positions in the embryo. This is confirmed by the results of scanning electron microscopy, which revealed that mesoderm cells show no polarity at all in the caudofrontal direction. In may therefore be concluded that these cells probably do not migrate.