EMBRYOLOGY

Embryology is the science that study the living being from its origin (fertilization) to its expel
outside the maternal organism (childbirth) – the anatomy of growth/ontogeny with two periods: the
prenatal period and the postnatal period.

Embryology study the prenatal period of ontogeny that consists of reproduction, embryonic
development and organogenesis.

The reproduction of human race is sexual, between two sexual different organisms =
gametic reproduction.

The gamete is the sexual cell: the female gamete is named oocyte (secondary oocyte), and
the male gamete is named spermatozoa.

Sexual reproduction has the advantage of recombination of genetic material, which make the
offspring different from their parents, providing the variability of the species.

The union of the two gametes represent the fertilization. At the final of this process will result one
single cell, different from the two gametes, named zygote (egg cell). The zygote starts to divide to
develop a new organism, up to the new-born baby, during the gestation (pregnancy).

The development of zygote consists of several stages:

- Embryo phase: is the period between the fertilization and the end of the second month of
intrauterine life.
- Fetal phase (fetus phase): from the end of second intrauterine month to the birth. This
period is divided in two other stages: non-viable fetus ( between the third month until the
end of the sixth month. In this period the interruption of the pregnancy = abortion) and
viable fetus (from the seventh month to the end of ninth month. The expulsion of the fetus
in this period is named premature birth. The survival of the fetus is possible in this period
and depends of the pulmonary alveoli development and the existence of the surfactant –a
surface-active liquid that cover the alveoli walls and facilitates the gases exchange between
blood and inhaled air).

GAMETES

General features:

- The gametes are cells produced by sexual glands (gonads) – mixed glands: the endocrine
secretion consists of sexual hormones (testosterone – men, and progesterone and estrogen
–females), the exocrine secretion is represented by the gametes.
- Through fertilization gametes providing the perpetuation of species.
- They carried out the hereditary characters (not all the time, the pathological mutations are
possible)
- The gametes are similarly to the organism’s cells, except that they have a haploid number of
chromosomes – 22 somatic chromosomes and 1 sexual chromosome (X/y).

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 The chromosomes are cellular elements with a filamentary aspect, located in nucleus of the
cell. They are nucleoproteins and contains the largest part of cellular DNA, being able to transmit
the hereditary characters.

In somatic cells there are 46 chromosomes grouped in 23 pairs. The chromosomes of the
same pair are homologues and identical morphologically. This grouping in pairs realize diploid
character specific of somatic cells, noted with 2n (2 x n). Totality of chromosomes forms
karyotype (the genetic map). There are 22 pairs of matching chromosomes, the autosomes, and
one pair of sex chromosomes. The first 22 pairs of chromosomes codify common somatic
information for the common constitution of both sexes that is called phenotype. The 23th pair
chromosomes are sex chromosomes: for female there are identically chromosomes, 2”X” – 44XX
karyotype; for male there are two different chromosomes in the 23th pair, Xy – 44Xy karyotype.

The gametes have half numbers of chromosomes (haploid) because during fertilization the
nucleus of the two gametes (sexual cells) are uniting, so the zygote will have 46 chromosomes,
like his parents. For this, the female gamete (oocyte) has 22X chromosomes, and the male
gamete has 22X or 22y chromosomes.

This halving the number of chromosomes during gametogenesis is realize through a

particular cellular divide named meiosis, different from mitosis which is a divide process in
somatic cells.

Mitosis is the process whereby one somatic cell divides, giving rise to two daughter cells that
are genetically identical to the parent cell. Meiosis is the cell division that takes place in the
germ cells to generate male and female gametes, sperm and egg cells, respectively. Meiosis
requires two cell divisions, meiosis I and meiosis II, to reduce the number of chromosomes to
the haploid number of 23. Meiosis also ensure the recombination of genetic material through
Crossover, a critical event in meiosis I, which is the interchange of chromatid segments between
paired homologous chromosomes.

Thus, each gamete contains a haploid number of 23 chromosomes after meiosis, and the
union of the gametes at fertilization restores the diploid number of 46.

Gametogenesis represents conversion of germ cells (oocyte and spermatozoa) into male
and female gametes, mature sexual cells which have the capacity for fertilization. Oogenesis is
the process whereby oogonia differentiate into mature oocytes, inside the female sexual gland,
ovary. Spermiogenesis, which begins at puberty, includes all of the events by which
spermatogonia are transformed into spermatozoa, inside the male sexual gland, testicle.