Vascular regression during amphibian metamorphosis--a scanning electron microscope study of vascular corrosion casts of the ventral velum in tadpoles of Xenopus laevis Daudin.

We used scanning electron microscopy and vascular casting to study gross arterial supply, venous drainage, and microvascular patterns of the fully developed ventral velum of tadpoles of Xenopus laevis Daudin and analyzed changes of the velar vascular bed from prometamorphosis to metamorphic climax in a qualitative and quantitative manner. The multilayered, highly secretory ventral velum is supplied bilaterally by an anterior and a posterior velar artery, branches of the external carotid artery. Velar arterioles branch mainly dichotomously and form a flat two-dimensional capillary meshwork overlying the tops of filterplates I-IV. Thymopharyngeal veins, dorsal branches of the filter plates veins, and the internal jugular veins drain the velum toward the venous sinus of the heart. Location, architecture, and the drainage of the velar microvascular bed into the venous sinus make a significant contribution of the velar capillaries to gas exchange unlikely. Instead, velar capillaries rather serve the nutrition of the secretory epithelium. The overall morphology of velar vessels from prometamorphosis to metamorphic climax--deduced from vascular corrosion casts--points to atonic vessels with increased leakage indicated by adhering globular extravasations, and to obstructed or blind ending vessels evidenced by the tapered and/or rounded blind ending cast vessels. The significant decrease in the size of the ventral velum during the metamorphic cycle was paralleled by a miniaturization of the velar vascular bed. We hypothetize that this miniaturization occurs by a shortening and fusion of capillary mesh elements. Our findings in corrosion casts, particularly the miniaturization of the velar microvascular bed and the morphology of the regressing capillaries, point to profound morphologic and ultrastructural changes in velar vessels; a study on the fine structure of the microvascular bed of the ventral velum in metamorphic tadpoles is in progress.