Development of the human heart

Abstract

Molecular and genetic studies around the turn of this century have revolutionized the field of cardiac development. We now know that the primary heart tube, as seen in the early embryo contains little more than the precursors for the left ventricle, whereas the precursor cells for the remainder of the cardiac components are continuously added, to both the venous and arterial pole of the heart tube, from a single center of growth outside the heart. While the primary heart tube is growing by addition of cells, it does not show significant cell proliferation, until chamber differentiation and expansion starts locally in the tube, by which the chambers balloon from the primary heart tube. The transcriptional repressors Tbx2 and Tbx3 locally repress the chamber-specific program of gene expression, by which these regions are allowed to differentiate into the distinct components of the conduction system. Molecular genetic lineage analyses have been extremely valuable to assess the distinct developmental origin of the various component parts of the heart, which currently can be unambiguously identified by their unique molecular phenotype. Despite the enormous advances in our knowledge on cardiac development, even the most common congenital cardiac malformations are only poorly understood. The challenge of the newly developed molecular genetic techniques is to unveil the basic gene regulatory networks underlying cardiac morphogenesis.

Characterisation of the human embryonic and foetal epicardium during heart development

“…S1D-F, arrowheads; data not shown). Importantly, this is earlier than previously described; based exclusively on extrapolating from findings in the chicken embryonic heart, it was previously suggested that the epicardium covers the entire heart by late stage CS16 (Hirakow, 1992;Sylva et al, 2014).…”

“…Previous observations have suggested that epicardial growth starts by CS12 (4 weeks post-conception; equivalent to E9.5 in mouse embryos), a time point coinciding with looping of the human embryonic heart (Hirakow, 1992;Sylva et al, 2014). To further characterise the development of the embryonic epicardium, we analysed Haematoxylin and Eosin-stained serial sections of paraffin-embedded human hearts at stages CS11 to CS14 (between 4 and 5 weeks post-conception; n=3 per stage; Fig.…”

“…Light microscopy imaging of serial histological sections from staged human embryos at Carnegie stages (CS) 12 to 17 (4-6 weeks post-conception; equivalent to E9.5-12.5 in the mouse embryo) was employed to infer that morphogenetic events analogous to those described in the chicken embryo governed initial epicardial formation at CS12 (Hirakow, 1992;Manner et al, 2001). Villous protrusions of PEderived cells extending from the sinus wall region contacted the ventricle on the dorsal side and then spread out as a single squamous epithelium (Hirakow, 1992;Manner et al, 2001;Sylva et al, 2014). Despite these early anatomical descriptions, virtually nothing is known about the cellular architecture, marker expression and lineage potential of the human embryonic epicardium across later stages of heart development.…”

Células de la Cresta Neural y su Relación con Cardiopatía Congénita: Revisión Sistemática de la Literatura

“…Su actividad en la formación del corazón es variada, contribuyendo a conformar la musculatura lisa del tracto efluyente (de salida) con su posterior división y parte del septo interventricular, además de modular la formación de los aparatos valvares aórtico y pulmonar, su inervación parasimpática y la organización de los patrones espaciales de los arcos aórticos y sus ramas colaterales (Sylva et al, 2014;Brade et al).…”

Tadeusz Stefan Kurkiewicz (1885-1962) – His Important Contribution to Contemporary Cardiology

“…Original observations of professor Kurkiewicz are also cited in various textbooks and handbooks [for example 9-10, 21, 54-61] or dissertations non listed in SCI [62][63][64][65][66][67]. Furthermore, name of T. Kurkiewicz appears in numerous original publications, although his fundamental publication is not included into the references (for example "theory challenged as early as 1909 by Kurkiewicz" [68], "in 1909 Kurkiewicz identified the pro--epicardium as the source of the epicardium" [69].…”