Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Biol. 2019 Oct 9;458(1):12–31. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.10.005

Figure 1. Diagram illustrating visceral anatomy before and after evisceration.

Figure 1.

The animal is positioned with the anterior end to the top. Before evisceration the digestive tract is composed of the esophagus (e), first descending intestine (1di), ascending intestine (ai), second descending intestine (2di), and the cloaca (cl). Other organs shown are: gonads (g), pharyngeal bulb (phb), polian vesicle (Pv), and respiratory tree (rt) (A). During evisceration most of the internal organs are ejected through the cloaca, only remaining a segment of the esophagus (e), the cloaca (cl), and the mesenteries. From the distal end of the ventral mesentery (VM) a new intestine develops. Black arrows point out to the forming intestine connections to the esophagus and cloaca. Red arrows indicate the segment of the regenerating mesentery dissected and used for histological studies in in vivo studies (B). A photograph of a sea cucumber where a segment (red arrows) of the body wall with attached regenerating mesentery has been dissected to be embedded in OCT for cryosectioning is shown (C). Diagrams are not to scale and were modified from (Mashanov and García-Arrarás, 2011; and García-Arrarás et al., 1998)