title: Analysis of in vivo cell movement using transparent tissue systems.
abstract: The embryos of certain teleost species are transparent and cell behaviour within the intact embryo can be observed and recorded using Nomarski microscopy coupled with time-lapse video recording or time-lapse cine filming. In this report we review some of our recent analyses of cell behaviour patterns underlying key morphogenetic events. (1) Contact-guided cell migration through a structurally ordered extracellular matrix during fin development; (2) movement of tissue layers during epibolic overgrowth; and (3) cell 'social' behaviour during the establishment of the body axis (i.e. notochord formation and somitogenesis). These results, on cell behaviour correlated with normal morphogenesis, provide a baseline for further work in which hypotheses concerning subcellular and molecular controls of cell behaviour can be tested by experimental perturbation in vivo.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000502:physiology*; D005399:Fishes; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009024:Morphogenesis