cardiac wall (development)
Last reviewed 01/2018
The layers of the mature cardiac wall have different developmental origins:
- endocardium:
- forms from splanchnic mesoderm after induction by ventral endoderm
- mesoderm forms angioblasts which then go on to form endothelial cells
- myocardium:
- during folding of the embryo around day 17, the future endocardium takes surrounding uninduced mesoderm with it
- the latter mesoderm envelopes the heart tube within the pericardial cavity and is continuous with the dorsal mesocardium
- it condenses and grows in thickness to form the myocardium
- epicardium: formed from migration of cells from the sinus venosus of the heart tube superficial to the myocardium