MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES
DURING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
AND DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS
ANA 204
• human development, the process of growth and change that takes place
between birth and maturity.
• Human growth is far from being a simple and uniform process of becoming taller
or larger. As a child gets bigger, there are changes in shape and in
tissue composition and distribution. In the newborn infant the head represents
about a quarter of the total length; in the adult it represents about one-seventh. In
the newborn infant the muscles constitute a much smaller percentage of the total
body mass than in the young adult. In most tissues, growth consists both of the
formation of new cells and the packing in of more protein or other material into
cells already present; early in development cell division predominates and later
cell filling.
Types and rates of human growth
• Different tissues and different regions of the body mature at different rates, and
the growth and development of a child consists of a highly complex series of
changes. It is like the weaving of a cloth whose pattern never repeats itself. The
underlying threads, each coming off its reel at its own rhythm, interact with one
another continuously, in a manner always highly regulated and controlled. The
fundamental questions of growth relate to these processes of regulation, to the
program that controls the loom, a subject as yet little understood.
Meanwhile, height is in most circumstances the best single index of growth, being
a measure of a single tissue (that of the skeleton; weight is a mixture of all tissues,
and this makes it a less useful parameter in a long-term following of a child’s
growth).
• In general, the velocity of growth decreases from birth onward (and actually from
as early as the fourth month of fetal life; see below), but this decrease is
interrupted shortly before the end of the growth period
• Growth in weight of the fetus follows the same general pattern as growth in
length, except that the peak velocity is reached much later, at approximately 34
weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period.
• There is considerable evidence that from about 34 to 36 weeks onward the rate of
growth of the fetus slows down because of the influence of the maternal uterus,
whose available space is by then becoming fully occupied. Twins slow down
earlier, when their combined weight is approximately the 36-week weight of a
single fetus. Babies who are held back in this way grow rapidly as soon as they
have emerged from the uterus.
• Thus there is a significant negative association between weight of a baby at birth
and weight increment during the first year; in general, larger babies grow less, the
smaller more. For the same reason there is practically no relation between adult
size and the size of that person at birth
• The great rate of growth of the fetus compared with that of the child is largely due
to the fact that cells are still multiplying. The proportion of cells
undergoing mitosis (the ordinary process of cell multiplication by splitting) in any
tissue becomes progressively less as the fetus gets older, and it is generally
thought that few if any new nerve cells (apart from the cells in the supporting
tissue, or neuroglia) and only a limited proportion of new muscle cells appear after
six postmenstrual months, the time when the velocity in linear dimensions is
dropping sharply.
• CHANGES IN MUSCLE AND NERVE CELL
• The muscle and nerve cells of the fetus are considerably different in appearance
from those of the child or adult. Both have little cytoplasm (cell substance) around
the nucleus.
• In the muscle there is a great amount of intercellular substance and a much
higher proportion of water than in mature muscle. The later fetal and
the postnatal growth of the muscle consists chiefly of building up the cytoplasm of
the muscle cells; salts are incorporated and the contractile proteins formed. The
cells become bigger, the intercellular substance largely disappears, and the
concentration of water decreases.
• This process continues quite actively up to about three years of age and slowly
thereafter; at adolescence it briefly speeds up again, particularly in boys, under
the influence of androgenic (male sex) hormones.
• In the nerve cells cytoplasm is added and elaborated, and extensions grow that
carry impulses from and to the cells—the axons and dendrites, respectively. Thus
postnatal growth, for at least some tissues, is chiefly a period of development and
enlargement of existing cells, while early fetal life is a period of division and
addition of new cells.
• MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN DIFFERENT TISSUES AND PARTS OF THE BODY
• The majority of skeletal and muscular dimensions follow approximately the growth
curve described for height, and so also do the dimensions of the internal organs
such as the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys. But some exceptions exist, most
notably the brain and skull, the reproductive organs, the lymphoid tissue of the
tonsils, adenoids, and intestines, and the subcutaneous fat.
• The size attained by various tissues can be given as a percentage of the birth-to-
maturity increment. Height follows the “general” curve. The reproductive organs,
internal and external, have a slow prepubescent growth, followed by a
large adolescent spurt; they are less sensitive than the skeleton to one set of
hormones and more sensitive to another.
• The brain, together with the skull covering it and the eyes and ears, develops
earlier than any other part of the body and thus has a characteristic postnatal
curve. At birth it is already 25 percent of its adult weight, at age five about 90
percent, and at age 10 about 95 percent. Thus if the brain has any adolescent
spurt at all, it is a small one. A small but definite spurt occurs in head length and
breadth, but all or most of this is due to thickening of the skull bones and the
scalp, together with development of the air sinuses.
• The dimensions of the face follow a path somewhat closer to the general curve. There is
a considerable adolescent spurt, especially in the lower jaw, or mandible, resulting in the
jaw’s becoming longer and more projecting, the profile straighter, and the chin more
pointed. As always in growth, there are considerable individual differences, to the point
that a few children have no detectable spurt at all in some face measurements.
• The eye probably has a slight adolescent spurt, which is probably responsible for the
increase in frequency of short-sightedness in children that occurs at the time of puberty.
Though the degree of myopia increases continuously from at least age six to maturity, a
particularly rapid rate of change occurs at about 11 to 12 in girls and 13 to 14 in boys,
and this would be expected if there was a rather greater spurt in the axial dimension (the
dimension from front to back) of the eye than in its vertical dimension.
• The lymphoid tissue has quite a different growth curve from the rest. It reaches its
maximum amount before adolescence and then, probably under the direct influence of
sex hormones, declines to its adult value.
• The subcutaneous fat layer also has a curve of its own, of a slightly complicated sort. Its
thickness can be measured either by X rays or, more simply, at certain sites in the body, by
picking up a fold of skin and fat between the thumb and forefinger and measuring its
thickness with a special, constant-pressure caliper. Subcutaneous fat begins to be laid down
in the fetus at about 34 weeks postmenstrual age, increases from then until birth and from
birth onward until about nine months. (This is in the average child; the peak may be reached
as early as six months or as late as 12 or 15.) After nine months, when the velocity of fat gain
is zero, the fat usually decreases (that is, it has a negative velocity) until age six to eight,
when it begins to increase once more. Girls have a little more fat than boys at birth, and the
difference becomes more marked during the period of loss, since girls lose less than boys.
Graphs of the amounts of subcutaneous fat on males and females from birth to 16 years
revealed that from eight years on, the curves for girls and boys diverge more radically, as do
the curves for limb and body fat. At adolescence the limb fat in boys decreases, while the
body fat shows a temporary slowing down of gain but no actual loss. In girls there is a slight
halting of the limb-fat gain at adolescence, but no loss; the trunk fat shows only a steady rise
until adolescence.
• CHANGES DURINGDEVELOPMENT AT PUBERTY
• Alterations in growth rate
• At puberty, a considerable alteration in growth rate occurs. There is a swift
increase in body size, a change in shape and composition of the body, and a rapid
development of the gonads, or sex glands—the reproductive organs and the
characters signalling sexual maturity. Some of these changes are common to both
sexes, but most are sex-specific. Boys have a great increase in muscle size and
strength, together with a series of physiological changes making them capable of
doing heavier physical work than girls and of running faster and longer. These
changes all specifically adapt the male to his primitive primate role of dominating,
fighting, and foraging. Such adolescent changes occur generally in primates (that
is, men, apes, and monkeys) but are more marked in some species than in others.
Man lies at about the middle of the primate range, as regards both adolescent size
increase and degree of sexual differentiation.
• Increase in body size
• During the adolescent spurt in height, for a year or more, the velocity of growth
approximately doubles; a boy is likely to be growing again at the rate he last experienced
about age two. The peak velocity of height (P.H.V., a point much used in growth studies)
averages about 10.5 centimetres per year in boys and 9.0 centimetres in girls (about 4 and
3.4 inches, respectively), but this is the “instantaneous” peak given by a smooth curve drawn
through the observations. The velocity over the whole year encompassing the six months
before and after the peak is naturally somewhat less. During this year a boy usually grows
between 7 and 12 centimetres (2.75 and 4.75 inches) and a girl between 6 and 11
centimetres (2.35 and 4.35 inches). Children who have their peak early reach a somewhat
higher peak than those who have it late.
• The average age at which the peak is reached depends on the nature and circumstances of
the group studied more, probably, than does the height of the peak. In moderately well-off
British or North American children at present the peak occurs on average at about 14.0 years
in boys and 12.0 years in girls. Though the absolute average ages differ from population to
population, the two-year sex difference always persists.
• Practically all skeletal and muscular dimensions take part in the spurt, though not
to an equal degree. Most of the spurt in height is due to acceleration of trunk
length rather than of length of legs. There is a fairly regular order in which the
dimensions accelerate; leg length as a rule reaches its peak first, followed by the
body breadths, with shoulder width last. The earliest structures to reach
their adult status are the head, hands, and feet.
• The spurt in muscle, of both limbs and heart, coincides with the spurt in skeletal
growth, for both are caused by the same hormones. Boys’ muscle widths reach a
peak velocity of growth that is greater than that reached by girls. But, since girls
have their spurt earlier, there is actually a period, from about 121/2 to 131/2, when
girls on average have larger muscles than boys of the same age, as well as being
taller. Simultaneously with the spurt there is a loss of fat, as described above.
• The marked increase in muscle size in boys at adolescence leads to an increase
in strength. Before adolescence, boys and girls are similar in strength for a given
body size and shape; after, boys have much greater strength, probably due
to development of more force per gram of muscle as well as to absolutely larger
muscles. They also develop larger hearts and lungs relative to their size, a higher
systolic blood pressure (the pressure resulting from a heart contraction), a lower
resting heart rate, a greater capacity for carrying oxygen in the blood with more
hemoglobin, and a greater power for neutralizing the chemical products of
muscular exercise such as lactic acid. In short, the male becomes at adolescence
more adapted for the tasks of hunting, fighting, and manipulating all sorts of heavy
objects, as is necessary in some forms of food gathering.
• It is as a direct result of these anatomical and physiological changes that athletic
ability increases so much in boys at adolescence. The popular notion of a boy’s
“outgrowing his strength” at this time has little scientific support. It is true that the
peak velocity of strength is reached a year or so later than that of height, so that a
short period may exist when the adolescent, having completed his skeletal and
probably also his muscular growth, still does not have the strength of a young
adult of the same body size and shape. But this is a temporary phase; considered
absolutely, power, athletic skill, and physical endurance all increase progressively
and rapidly throughout adolescence.
• Hormones and growth
• The main hormones concerned with growth are pituitary growth hormone, thyroid
hormone, the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen, and the pituitary gonadotropic
(sex-gland-stimulating) hormones.
• Pituitary growth hormone, a protein with molecular weight of 21,600 and of known
amino-acid composition, is secreted by the pituitary gland throughout life. Exactly what
its function is in the adult is not clear, but in the child it is necessary for growth; without
it dwarfism results. During fetal life it seems not to be necessary, though normally
present. It is not secreted at a constant rate all day but in small bursts of activity.
Secretion by the pituitary is controlled by a substance sent to it from an adjacent part of
the brain. The normal stimulus for secretion is not certain, but a sharp and “unnatural”
lowering of blood sugar will cause growth hormone to be secreted, and this is used as a
test. The hormone decreases the amount of fat and causes protein to be laid down in
muscles and viscera. Children who lack it are fat as well as small; when given it by
injection, they lose fat and grow rapidly.
• The hormone is peculiar in being species-specific; that is, only growth hormone
from human glands is active in man. Supplies of the hormone for treating children
who need it are obtained at autopsy, and supply has been limited by this.
Recombinant DNA technology shows possibilities in increased manufacture of this
hormone in the laboratory
• Thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland in the neck is necessary for normal
growth, though it does not itself stimulate growth, for example, in the absence of
pituitary growth hormone. Without thyroid hormone, however, cells do not
develop and function properly, especially in the brain. Babies who lack thyroid
hormone at birth are small and have insufficiently developed brains; they are
known as cretins. Frequently, if the condition is diagnosed and they are treated
with thyroid hormone at once, they recover completely; the longer they go
without treatment, the more likely it is that the brain damage will be permanent.
• Thyroid lack may also develop later in childhood, when it causes a slowing of
growth rate; full catch-up follows prompt treatment.
• Testosterone, secreted by the interstitial cells of the testis, is important not only
at puberty but before. Its secretion by the fetal testis cells is responsible for
the development of certain parts of the male genital apparatus. If testosterone is not
secreted at a particular and circumscribed time, the genitalia develop into the female
form.
• Only small amounts of testosterone circulate between birth and puberty, but at puberty
the interstitial cells develop greatly in response to pituitary luteinizing hormone (see
below), and testosterone is secreted in large amounts, bringing about most of the changes
of male puberty. It acts on a widespread series of receptors—for example, the cells of the
penis, the muscles, the skin of the face, the cartilages of the shoulder, and certain parts of
the brain. In boys, most of the adolescent growth spurt is due to testosterone.
• The female sex hormones, collectively called estrogens, are first secreted in quantity at
puberty by cells in the ovary. They cause growth of the uterus, vagina, and breast; they act
also on the bones of the hip, causing the specifically female widening.
The adolescent growth spurt in the female is attributed to the combined actions
of estradiol, growth hormone, and the testosterone-like substance androstenedione.
• The pituitary secretes two other hormones concerned in development:
one, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), causes growth of the main portions of the
ovary in the female and the sperm-producing cells in the testis of the male; the
other, luteinizing hormone (LH), causes growth and secretion of the testosterone-
secreting cells of the male and has an action in controlling the menstrual cycle in
the female. The pituitary is caused to secrete gonadotropins by substances called
releasing factors that come to it from adjacent areas of the brain, where they are
made. Certain children develop all the changes of puberty, up to and including
sperm production or ovulation, at an early age, either as the result of a
brain lesion or as an isolated developmental, sometimes genetic, defect. The
youngest mother on record was such a child; she gave birth to a full-term
healthy infant by cesarean section at the age of five years and eight months. The
existence of precocious puberty and the results of accidental ingestion by small
children of male or female sex hormones indicate that breasts, uterus, and penis
will respond to hormonal stimulation long before puberty. Evidently an increased
end-organ sensitivity plays at most a minor part in puberal events.
• The signal to start the sequence of events is given by the brain, not the pituitary. Just as the
brain holds the information on sex, so it holds information on maturity. The pituitary gland
of a newborn rat successfully grafted in place of an adult pituitary begins at once to function
in an adult fashion and does not have to wait until its normal age of maturation has been
reached. It is the hypothalamus in the brain, not the pituitary, that must mature before
puberty begins. Small amounts of sex hormones circulate from the time of birth, and these
appear to inhibit the prepuberal hypothalamus from producing gonadotropin releasers. At
puberty the hypothalamic cells become less sensitive to sex hormones. The small amount of
sex hormones circulating then fails to inhibit the hypothalamus; gonadotropins are released,
and these stimulate the production of testosterone by the testis or estrogen by the ovary.
The level of the sex hormone rises until the same feedback circuit is re-established but now
at a higher level of gonadotropins and sex hormones. The sex hormones are now high
enough to stimulate the growth of secondary sex characters and to support mating
behaviour.
• Numerous factors may retard maturation or prevent normal growth, including hormonal
disorders, metabolic defects, hereditary conditions, and inadequate nutrition.
DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS
ANA 204
• Developmental processes
• Developmental processes are the series of biological changes associated with
• information transfer, growth, and differentiation during the life cycle of organisms.
Information transfer is the transmission of DNA and other biological signals from parent cells
to daughter cells.
• Growth is the increase in size due to cell expansion and cell division .
• Differentiation is the change of unspecialized cells in a simple body pattern to specialized
cells in more complex body pattern.
• While nearly all organisms, even single-celled bacteria , undergo development of some sort;
the developmental process of complex multicellular organisms (HUMAN) is emphasized
here.
• In human, development begins with the manufacture of male and female sex cells.
• It proceeds through fertilization and formation of an embryo. Development continues
following birth of the embryo and culminates in aging and death .
• Information transfer
• Nearly every multicellular organism passes through a life cycle stage where it exists
as a single undifferentiated cell or as a small number of undifferentiated cells. This
developmental stage contains molecular information which specifies the entire
course of development encoded in its many thousands of genes. At the molecular
level, genes are used to make proteins , many of which act as enzymes, biological
catalysts which drive the thousands of different biochemical reactions inside cells.
• Adult multicellular organisms can consist of one quadrillion (a one followed by 15
zeros) or more cells, each of which has the same genetic information. (There are a
few notable exceptions, such as the red blood cells of mammals , which do not
have DNA)
• In addition to DNA, a fertilized egg cell contains many proteins and other
cellular constituents which are typically derived from the female. These
cellular constituents are often asymmetrically distributed during
cell division , so that the two daughter cells derived from the fertilized egg
have significant biochemical and cytological differences.
• In many species, these differences act as biological signals which affect the
course of development. There are additional spatial and temporal
interactions within and among the cells of a developing organism which
act as biological signals and provide a form of information to the
developing organism.
• Growth
• Organisms generally increase in size during development. Growth is usually
allometric, in that it occurs simultaneously with cellular differentiation and
changes in overall body pattern.
• A developing organism generally increases in complexity as it increases in size.
Moreover, in an evolutionary line, larger species are generally more complex that
the smaller species.
• The reason for this correlation is that the volume (or weight) of an organism varies
with the cube of its length, whereas gas exchange and food assimilation, which
generally occur on surfaces, vary with the square of its length. Thus, an increase in
size requires an increase in cellular specialization and morphological complexity so
that the larger organism can breathe and eat.
• Sometimes the coordination between growth and differentiation goes awry,
resulting in a developmental abnormality. One such abnormality is an
undifferentiated mass of cells called a tumor . A tumor may be benign, in which
case it does not invade adjacent cells; alternatively, it may be malignant, or
cancerous, in which case the proliferating cells invade their neighbors. Cancers
often send colonies of tumor cells throughout the body of an individual, a process
called metastasis.
• Cancers can be caused by damaging the DNA, the molecular information carrier, of
a single cell. This damage may be elicited by a variety of factors such as
carcinogenic chemicals, viral infection , or ultraviolet radiation . In addition, some
cancers may arise from unprovoked and spontaneous damage to DNA. Basic
studies of the different developmental processes may lead to a better
understanding of cancer and how it might be prevented or cured.
Differentiation
• Differentiation is the change of unspecialized cells in a simple body pattern to
specialized cells in a more complex body pattern. It is highly coordinated with
growth and includes morphogenesis, the development of the complex overall
body pattern.
• Molecular changes in organisms which lead to development
• The so-called "Central Dogma of Biology" says that spatial and temporal
differences in gene expression cause cellular and morphological differentiation.
Since DNA makes RNA, and RNA makes protein, there are basically three levels
where a cell can modulate gene expression: 1) by altering the transcription of DNA
into RNA; 2) by altering the translation of RNA into protein; and 3) by altering the
activity of the protein, which is usually an enzyme . Since DNA and RNA are
themselves synthesized by proteins, the gene expression patterns of all cells are
regulated by highly complex biochemical networks.
• Lastly, aging must also be considered a phase of development. Many evolutionary
biologists believe that all organisms have genes which have multiple effects, called
pleiotropic genes, that increase reproductive success when expressed early in
development, but cause the onset of old age when expressed later in
development. In this view, natural selection has favored genes which cause aging
and death because the early effects of these genes outweigh the later effects.
