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Vascular development

Published on April 30, 2026   22 min

A selection of talks on Cardiovascular & Metabolic

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0:00
Hello. My name is Graeme Birdsey. I'm a senior lecturer in vascular science at the National Heart and Lung Institute of Imperial College London. Today, I'll be talking about vascular development.
0:14
The vascular system is one of the largest and most extensive networks in our bodies. On the left is a diagram of a human body, showing the extensive network of blood veins, arteries and capillaries that permeate throughout the body to all parts of the tissue. On the right, the green vessels are lymphatic vessels. These are important for interstitial fluid homeostasis. They assist in fat absorption and maintain immune surveillance. When dysfunctional, the endothelial cells that make up the blood and vascular the blood vasculature and the lymphatic system contribute to more diseases than any other organ and angiocrine factors for microvascular endothelial cells stimulate organ development and regeneration. The vascular system plays an important role in maintaining health, but also in disease.
1:14
The blood and lymphatic vessels are lined by a single layer of flat cells called endothelial cells. Two diagrams in this picture at the bottom show the endothelial cells in a mouse retina, and these cells can be grown in the tissue culture, growing as flat cobblestone monolayers. Interestingly, in the heart, there are three times more endothelial cells than cardiomyocytes. So they play an important role in maintaining tissue homeostasis. The vascular endothelium has many functions in the body,

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Vascular development

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