Definition of "mesenchyme" [mesenchyme]

• The part of the embryonic mesoderm, consisting of loosely packed, unspecialized cells set in a gelatinous ground substance, from which connective tissue, bone, cartilage, and the circulatory and lymphatic systems develop. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This secreted tissue in its simple or in its differentiated state, with all its derivatives, we call the mesenchyme ""
• "In recent years, however, pluripotent stem cells were discovered in various human tissues – in the spinal cord, in the brain, in the mesenchyme (connective tissue) of various organs, and in the blood of the umbilical cord."
• "They distinguished in the middle layer two quite distinct elements, the mesoblast proper, formed by the evagination of the walls of the archenteron, and the mesenchyme, formed by free cells budded off from the germ-layers."