Mesenchyme is a tissue found in organisms during development. It consists of many loosely packed, nonspecialized, mobile cells. Mesenchyme is derived primarily from the mesoderm, although there are also mesenchymal cells known as the neural crest cells, which derive from ectoderm. Mesenchyme gives rise to diverse structures of the developing organism, including connective tissue, bone, cartilage, teeth, blood and plasma cells, the endothelial lining of the vessels of the circulatory and lymphatic systems, and smooth muscle.

Mesenchymal cells are star-shaped in appearance, with an oval-shaped nucleus and comparatively little cytoplasm. They are widely spaced, with considerable extracellular space between cells. This space is filled with a dense intercellular matrix. An important characteristic of mesenchymal cells is that they are mobile, and move with a crawling, amoeboid motion.

Mesenchymal cells are undifferentiated and are therefore pluripotent — that is, they have the capacity to differentiate into any number of tissue...