Endothelial cell transitions in zebrafish vascular development

In recent decades, developmental biologists have come to view vascular development as a series of progressive transitions. Mesoderm differentiates into endothelial cells; arteries, veins and lymphatic endothelial cells are specified from early endothelial cells; and vascular networks diversify and invade developing tissues and organs. Our understanding of this elaborate developmental process has benefitted from detailed studies using the zebrafish as a model system. Here, we review a number of key developmental transitions that occur in zebrafish during the formation of the blood and lymphatic vessel networks. The vertebrate vasculature is an elaborate, interconnected, hierarchical network of blood and lymphatic blood vessels found in all tissues and organs. The formation of functional vascular networks during embryonic development is a progressive process that first initiates with the formation of endothelial cells (ECs) that will line future vessels. In this review, we describe important transitions that occur during the formation of vascular lineages using the zebrafish as a model system.image