Hisao Honda
Kanebo Institute for Cancer Research, Tomobuchicho 1-5-90, Miyakojimaku, Osaka 534, Japan
(Received May 9, 1989; Accepted July 3, 1989)
Keywords: Sheet, Epithelium, Blastula, Fate Map, Body Formation, Morphogenesis
Abstract. The present review serves as a basis for understanding the body formation of Jiving organisms in terms of constituent cells. Cells first form a jumbled mass, and the mass is then converted into a more organized state, e.g., an epithelial cell sheet. These processes have been investigated using our own original geometrical and mechanical cell models (HONDA, 1978, 1983; HONDA and EGUCHI, 1980). After summarizing our investigations, we introduce the concept of transformable cell sheets by explaining several examples of morphogenesis of epithelial cell sheets. Paying attention to epithelial cell sheets in a living organism is a good clue to understanding its complicated morphogenesis.