Angiogenesis in an esamaubs19; ve-cadubs8 double mutant embryo
Confocal movie of a Tg(fli1a:EGFP)y1 embryo starting around 29hpf (26hpf = 0min) shown in inversed contrast, anterior to the left. Confocal stacks were acquired every 8 minutes. Tip cells of angiogenic sprouts start to anastomose around 30hpf (around 4h of the movie), which is even less efficient compared to ve-cadubs8 mutant embryos. In two SAs, the tip cells detach from the stalk (around 5h and 8h of the movie). The stalks of these two SAs do not manage to reattach to the tip cells in the DLAV within the time the embryo was imaged. This would be different in ve-cadubs8 mutant embryos, where stalk cells that detached from their tip cell manage to reconnect to the DLAV within 8h after detachment. As angiogenesis progresses, cells in the DLAV appear not to integrate into a proper endothelium and retain their protrusive activity.