Abstract
The heart is the first organ to form and the cardiovascular system is the first functional system in the developing embryo. Both the heart and the blood vessels develop from the mesoderm at the same time so that a complete circulatory loop is ready for the start of cardiac contraction. In humans this is at about the third week of gestation. Despite divergent origins in different vertebrates, in the medium (phylotypic) and late stage of development the vascular systems faithfully repeat evolutionarily ancient structures in a highly conservative manner. Similar to the nervous system mechanisms of self organization create highly ordered structures in a reproducible manner. The anatomical construction of the circulatory system in the model animal fish and in mammals/humans is outlined in Figs. 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, and 17.4.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mueller, W.A., Hassel, M., Grealy, M. (2015). Heart and Blood Vessels. In: Development and Reproduction in Humans and Animal Model Species. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43784-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43784-1_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43783-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43784-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)