Resolving the True Ventricular Mural Architecture
1
Comparative Medicine Lab, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
2
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Universidad de Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain
3
Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK
4
Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 2018, 5(2), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd5020034
Received: 15 May 2018
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Revised: 10 June 2018
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Accepted: 14 June 2018
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Published: 20 June 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Morphology of the Developing and Mature Cardiovascular System)
The precise nature of packing together of the cardiomyocytes within the ventricular walls has still to be determined. The spiraling nature of the chains of interconnected cardiomyocytes has long been recognized. As long ago as the end of the nineteenth century, Pettigrew had emphasized that the ventricular cone was not arranged on the basis of skeletal muscle. Despite this guidance, subsequent anatomists described entities such as “bulbo-spiral muscles”, with this notion of subunits culminating in the suggestion that the ventricular cone could be unwrapped so as to produce a “ventricular myocardial band”. Others, in contrast, had suggested that the ventricular walls were arranged on the basis of “sheets”, or more recently “sheetlets”, with investigators seeking to establishing the angulation of these entities using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging. Our own investigations, in contrast, have shown that the cardiomyocytes are aggregated together within the supporting fibrous matrix so as to produce a three-dimensional myocardial mesh. In this review, we summarize the previous accounts, and provide the anatomical evidence we have thus far accumulated to support the model of the myocardial mesh. We show how these anatomic findings underscore the concept of the myocardial mesh functioning in antagonistic fashion. They lend evidence to support the notion that the ventricular myocardium works as a muscular hydrostat.
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Keywords:
cardiomyocytes; ventricular walls; fibrous matrix; cardiac antagonism
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MDPI and ACS Style
Stephenson, R.S.; Agger, P.; Omann, C.; Sanchez-Quintana, D.; Jarvis, J.C.; Anderson, R.H. Resolving the True Ventricular Mural Architecture. J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 2018, 5, 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd5020034
AMA Style
Stephenson RS, Agger P, Omann C, Sanchez-Quintana D, Jarvis JC, Anderson RH. Resolving the True Ventricular Mural Architecture. Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease. 2018; 5(2):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd5020034
Chicago/Turabian StyleStephenson, Robert S., Peter Agger, Camilla Omann, Damian Sanchez-Quintana, Jonathan C. Jarvis, and Robert H. Anderson. 2018. "Resolving the True Ventricular Mural Architecture" Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease 5, no. 2: 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd5020034
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