Skip to main content
Fig. 4 | BMC Developmental Biology

Fig. 4

From: The migratory pathways of the cells that form the endocardium, dorsal aortae, and head vasculature in the mouse embryo

Fig. 4

The dorsal aortae move underneath the endocardium; migrating endothelial cells enhance Flk1 expression and are plastic during migration. CC = cardiac crescent, DA = dorsal aortae, NT = neural tube, A = anterior, P = posterior, MW = mesodermal wing. (A1–4) and (C1–2): single frames of live imaging time series from Additional File 21 and Additional File 28, showing Tal1 and Flk1 expression respectively, imaged by two-photon microscopy. (a1–4): yellow circles indicate Tal1+ cells that migrate above the neural tube and yellow arrows show the direction of the cell movement. (a2): white circle indicates a Tal1+ cell that is about to divide. (a3–4): the daughter cells migrate in opposite directions (white arrows); one joins the dorsal aorta and the other the venous pole of the endocardium. (a4): black arrows indicate the direction of the cell flow in the dorsal aortae. (b): Flk1 expression in an E7 fixed, non-cleared embryo, imaged by light sheet microscopy, posterior view showing Flk1 expression in the yolk sac, as well as the mesodermal wings in the embryo. (c1): this shows an embryo, similar to the one in (b), with Flk1 expression in the embryo as well as in the yolk sac. (c2): this shows that migrating endothelial cells (recognisable by their shape, and by their motion against the background in the movie) increase their Flk1 expression (some of these have been circled in yellow), while other cells in the embryo (some circled in white) decreased their Flk1 expression

Back to article page