This chapter provides an introduction to the embryology of the canine abdomen. The primitive gut tube, consisting of foregut, midgut and hindgut, is suspended from the dorsal body wall by a dorsal mesentery. Part of the primitive gut tube also has a ventral mesentery attaching it to the ventral body wall.
Mesenteries allow blood vessels and nerves to reach the organs they suspend.
Mesothelium, a mesodermally-derived simple squamous epithelium, covers the mesenteries and the linings of the closed body cavities as serous membranes.