OBJECTIVE To review the process of blood-cell formation in the murine and human yolk sac. DATA SOURCES Most articles were selected from the PubMed database. DATA SYNTHESIS The yolk sac is the first site of blood-cell production during murine and human ontogeny. Primitive erythroid cells originate in the yolk sac and complete their maturation, including enucleation, in the bloodstream. Thoug...

The amniote egg was a key innovation in vertebrate evolution because it supports an independent existence in terrestrial environments. The egg is provisioned with yolk, and development depends on the yolk sac for the mobilization of nutrients. We have examined the yolk sac of the corn snake Pantherophis guttatus by the dissection of living eggs. In contrast to the familiar fluid-filled sac of b...

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary inclusion of Mycofix Select (Biomin GmbH, Herzogenburg, Austria) on discrete egg parameters and quality characteristics of hens fed mycotoxin-contaminated diets (aflatoxin; AFLA) and deoxynivalenol (DON)) during a 10-wk trial. A 4 × 2 factorial design was used with 4 contamination levels: control, low (0.5 mg/kg of AFLA + 1.0 mg/kg ...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of Rhodobacter capsulatus KCTC-2583 on egg-yolk and serum cholesterol, egg production and quality parameters during the late laying periods in hens. A total of 160 Hy-Line Brown layers (54 wk-old) were randomly allotted to 4 treatment groups on the basis of laying performance. Each treatment had 4 replicates with ...

In the chicken, maternal IgG is deposited in the oocyte yolk and subsequently transported intact by the foetal chick yolk sac into the chick circulation. Such transport appears to require a specific membrane-localized IgG receptor. Using the assay of 125I-yolk IgG binding, we have investigated the existence and properties of such receptors in yolk sac tissue disks. We find that: (1) There are s...

Cytoplasmic rearrangements which follow fertilization were monitored in inverted eggs. A set of yolk compartments was resolved by cytological analyses of both normally oriented and inverted eggs. Those compartments were characterized by their yolk platelet compositions and movement during egg inversion. In addition to the major yolk masses which contain either small, intermediate or large plate...

1. Although post-hatching parental care is uncommon in reptiles, reproducing females may none the less contribute to the nutritional state of their offspring by depositing more yolk into the egg than is needed for embryogenesis. This ‘extra’ yolk (i.e. residual yolk) is drawn into the offspring’s body prior to hatching and is widely assumed to serve as an energy resource for early life activiti...

In order to evaluate the hypothetical activity of foetal hepatic factors on putative yolk-sac haemopoietic stem cells we used the Double Diffusion Chamber (DDC) techniqUe. The DDC were made of a regulator compartment, where foetal hepatic tissue was introduced and a test compartment where visceral yolk-sac cells were cultured. In this system a hepatic signal induced the yolk-sac stem cells to d...

Duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) is the only member of the hepadnavirus family in which nearly 100% vertical transmission from carrier mother to embryo has been reported. Large quantities of maternally transmitted virus particles are present in the yolk prior to incubation of the eggs, and replicative forms of DHBV DNA are detectable in the liver at 6 days of incubation. Since the yolk sac is simi...