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First published online May 28, 2004
In this issue |
Most of what we know about organogenesis comes from static studies of organ
anatomy during embryogenesis. But tissue assembly is a dynamic process,
involving many individual cell movements. To follow endothelial cell dynamics
in vivo during vasculogenesis in quails, Rupp and co-workers used digital
time-lapse scanning microscopy to track the movements of endothelial cells
tagged with a surface marker (see
p. 2887). They
describe five types of endothelial cell motion during normal vasculogenesis:
global tissue deformation; vascular drift, in which the entire vascular plexus
migrates medially; structural rearrangements (such as vascular fusions);
individual cell migrations; and cell process extensions. These different cell
motions are subtly altered by an 
vß3 integrin inhibitor, leading
the researchers to conclude that the previously reported wide-scale abrogation
of vasculogenesis caused by inhibiting this integrin results from disrupting
these specific cell movements. This technique will hopefully yield new
insights into other morphological processes in development.
Related articles in Development:
vß3 integrin-dependent endothelial cell dynamics in vivo
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