A survey by scanning electron microscopy of the extracellular matrix and endothelial components of the primordial chick heart.

Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the morphogenesis of the primitive embryonic chick heart (stage 5 late primitive streak through stage 9+). Components of the developing heart (myocardium, endocardial endothelium, and extracellular matrix) were viewed from the ventral surface after removal of the endoderm. The myocardial component of the heart can first be seen by light microscopy at stage 5 as two darker oval-shaped areas located on either side of the embryonic axis in the cranial region of the embryo. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrates that as early as stage 6 an area of extracellular matrix, enriched in comparison to more lateral and medial splanchnic mesoderm, can be identified ventral to the myocardial primordium. As heart formation progressed we observed primordial endothelial elements in the splanchnic mesoderm lateral to the myocardial primordia. By late stage 7 these lateral primordial elements had anastomosed into small, loose plexuses. This process of anastomosis progressed rapidly, and by stage 8 the entire cranial surface of the myocardial primordium was covered with vascular plexuses. By late stage 8 the progressive fusion of these plexuses resulted in the formation of large multiple tubular elements near the midline. More medially the fusion of tubular elements resulted in a continuous endothelial sheet at the midline.