Angioblasts (or vasoformative cells) are

embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for 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 sp ...

nic cells from which the endothelium of

blood vessel Blood vessels are the tubular structures of a circulatory system that transport blood throughout many Animal, animals’ bodies. Blood vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to most of the Tissue (biology), tissues of a Body (bi ...

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 ...

. Blood vessels first make their appearance in several scattered vascular areas ( blood islands) 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 gastr ...

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

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

plexuses In anatomy, a plexus (from the Latin term for 'braid') is a branching network of blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, or nerves. The nerves are typically axons outside the central nervous system. The standard plural form in English is plexuses. Al ...

. They form capillaries through

vasculogenesis Vasculogenesis is the process of blood vessel formation, occurring by a ''De novo synthesis, de novo'' production of endothelial cells. It is the first stage of the formation of the vascular network, closely followed by angiogenesis. Process ...

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 mainly by processes of sprouting and ...

. Angioblasts are one of the two products formed from hemangioblasts (the other being

multipotential hemopoietic stem cell Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the stem cells that give rise to other blood cells. This process is called haematopoiesis. In vertebrates, the first definitive HSCs arise from the ventral endothelial wall of the embryonic aorta within the (m ...

s).

References

External links

*
Diagram at uiowa.edu

Alternative Sources Of Angioblasts
Embryology {{Portal bar, Anatomy

See also

References

External links