The fusion of blood vessels during the formation of the
vascular system follows a uniform process. In this process, the blood vessels
involved go through different phases of a common choreography, in which the
splitting and the rearrangement of endothelial cells play a critical role.
Markus Affolter`s research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has
been able to demonstrate this in a living organism, the zebrafish. The findings
have been published in the journal „Developmental Cell“.