Lymphatic vessels have critical roles in both health and disease and their study is a rapidly evolving area of vascular biology. The consensus on how the first lymphatic vessels arise in the developing embryo has recently shifted. Originally, they were thought to solely derive by sprouting from veins. Since then, several studies have uncovered novel cellular mechanisms and a diversity of contributing cell lineages in the formation of organ lymphatic vasculature. Here, we review the key mechanisms and cell lineages contributing to lymphatic development, discuss the advantages and limitations of experimental techniques used for their study and highlight remaining knowledge gaps that require urgent attention. Emerging technologies should accelerate our understanding of how lymphatic vessels develop normally and how they contribute to disease.

淋巴管在健康和疾病中都起着至关重要的作用，其研究是血管生物学快速发展的领域。关于发育中的胚胎中第一条淋巴管如何产生的共识最近发生了变化。最初，人们认为它们只是从静脉中发芽而来。从那时起，一些研究发现了新的细胞机制和在器官淋巴管系统形成中贡献细胞谱系的多样性。在这里，我们回顾了促进淋巴发育的关键机制和细胞谱系，讨论了用于其研究的实验技术的优点和局限性，并强调了需要紧急关注的剩余知识差距。新兴技术应该加速我们对淋巴管如何正常发育以及它们如何导致疾病的理解。