ISSN:
1432-0568
Keywords:
Teleost
;
Heart
;
Cardiogenesis
;
Electron microscopy
;
Development
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Summary An electron microscopic study has been made on the development of the heart of the plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) by the examination of tissue taken from fish at the stage when the heart-tube has formed right through the larval life and up two months postmetamorphosis. The process of developments of the heart is essentially the same as that in higher vertebrates but there are certain minor sequential differences with comparable chick tissue. By day 24 (ten days after hatching) the “early larval” heart has formed which is a trilaminar structure — a layer of myocardium bounded internally by endocardium and externally by epicardium. This condition lasts until the 4a (Ryland) stage with the onset of endocardial invagination into the myocardium which is the criterion distinguishing the “late larval” heart. The “late larval” heart lasts throughout metamorphosis of the larva and until two months post-metamorphosis when the total adult heart is assumed. Thus the process of cardiogenesis continues irrespective of hatching and of metamorphosis. This study supports the concept that the epicardium is derived from an extramyocardial source. No results are presented concerning the theory that, in its earliest stages, the myocardium has a secretory function in the production of cardiac jelly, or of myofibrillogenesis in the Teleost myoblast. Stellar configurations of short lengths of newly formed sarcomeres commonly radiate out from Z centres in early myocytes and it is suggested that this is a primitive feature of Teleost myogenesis. There is also a proliferation of mitochondria within the myocardial cells at metamorphosis which may be connected to the subsequent fast growth of the heart in the succeeding two months.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00520947
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