Differential contribution of dorsal and ventral lateral plate mesoderm to hemopoiesis during Rana pipiens embryogenesis

Data obtained from studies on the origin and development of hemopoietic cells in several classes of vertebrate embryos argue for two distinct sources of hemopoietic cells, the intraembryonic dorsal lateral plate and the extraembryonic ventral blood island/yolk sac. In the present study, a stage by stage comparison of the hemopoietic potential of both of these regions was made during development of the frog, Rana pipiens. Either dorsal lateral plate or ventral blood island mesoderm was reciprocally transplanted between cytogenetically labeled triploid and diploid embryos. The ratio of donor-derived cells to host-derived cells (labeling index) was determined from Feulgen-stained DNA measurements of cells harvested from hemopoietic organs of young larvae. Blood island transplants consistently resulted in larvae with positive labeling of the circulating blood. Transplanted dorsal mesoderm supplied mesonephric granulocytes and thymocytes, but not circulating erythrocytes to larvae. However, the contribution of dorsal mesoderm to larval hemopoiesis fluctuated with respect to embryonic stage at transplantation.