Blastocoel

The blastocoel (), also spelled blastocoele and blastocele, and also called cleavage cavity, or segmentation cavity is a fluid-filled or yolk-filled cavity that forms in the blastula during very early embryonic development. At this stage in mammals the blastula is called the blastocyst, which consists of an outer epithelium, the trophectoderm, enveloping the inner cell mass and the blastocoel.

It develops following cleavage of the zygote after fertilization. It is the first fluid-filled cavity or lumen formed as the embryo enlarges, and is the essential precursor for the differentiated gastrula. In the Xenopus a very small cavity has been described in the two-cell stage of development.

In mammals

After fertilization, the zygote undergoes several rounds of cleavage divisions forming daughter cells known as blastomeres. At the 8- or 16-cell stage, the embryo undergoes compaction and forms the morula. Eventually, the morula is a solid ball of cells that has a small group of internal cells surrounded by a larger group of external cells. Then blastomeres undergo cellular differentiation with internal cells adopting the inner cell mass fate and the external layer becoming trophectoderm. The inner cell mass will go on to become the actual embryo. The external, surrounding cells develop into trophoblast cells, which only contribute to extra-embryonic tissues. At this stage there is no lumen within the embryo. In a process called cavitation, trophectoderm cells transport fluid into the embryo to create a blastocoel, the fluid-filled lumen. The membranes of the trophectoderm cells contain sodium (Na+) pumps, Na+/K+- ATPase and Na+/H+ exchangers, that pump sodium into the embryo. The oviduct cells stimulate these trophoblast sodium pumps as the fertilized egg travels down the fallopian tube towards the uterus. The accumulation of sodium pulls in water through osmosis. To form a single lumen, the fluid from multiple water pockets collects into a single entity in process akin to Ostwald ripening.

Damage to blastocoel

The blastocoel can be damaged and abolished if the adhesion between blastomeres, provided by cell adhesion molecules like EP-cadherin, is destroyed as mRNA by oligonucleotides. If the mRNA is destroyed, then there's no EP-cadherin, little to no blastomere adhesion and the blastocoel is non-existent.

In sea urchins

At the 120- cell stage, the sea urchin embryo is considered a blastula because of its developed blastocoel, which every embryonic cell surrounds and touches. Every cell is in contact with the proteinaceous fluid of the blastocoel on the inside and touches the hyaline layer on the outside. The loosely connected blastomeres are now tightly connected because of tight junctions that create a seamless epithelium that completely encircles the blastocoel. Even as the blastomeres continue to divide, the blastula remains one-cell thick and thins out as the embryo expands outward. This is accomplished in part due to the influx of water that expands the blastocoel and pushes the cells surrounding it outwards. At this point, the cells have become specified and are ciliated on the opposite side of the blastocoel. The vegetal plate and animal hemisphere develop and secrete a hatching enzyme that digests the fertilization envelope and allows the embryo to now become a free-swimming hatched blastula.

Development of primary mesenchyme

Important to the sea urchin blastula is the ingression of the primary mesenchyme. After the blastula hatches from the fertilization envelope, the vegetal side of the blastula begins to flatten and thicken as a small cluster of these cells develop long, thin processes called filopodia. These cells then dissociate and ingress into the blastocoel and are called the primary mesenchyme. The cells move randomly along the inside of the blastocoel, until they become localized in the ventrolateral region of the blastocoel.

In mammals

Damage to blastocoel

In sea urchins

Development of primary mesenchyme

References

Further reading