Follow Me! A Tale of Avian Heart Development with Comparisons to Mammal Heart Development
1
Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
2
Department of Radiology and Developmental Neuroscience Program, Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
3
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 2020, 7(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd7010008
Received: 16 January 2020
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Revised: 16 February 2020
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Accepted: 21 February 2020
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Published: 7 March 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comparative Developmental Cardiovascular Biomechanics and Bioengineering)
Avian embryos have been used for centuries to study development due to the ease of access. Because the embryos are sheltered inside the eggshell, a small window in the shell is ideal for visualizing the embryos and performing different interventions. The window can then be covered, and the embryo returned to the incubator for the desired amount of time, and observed during further development. Up to about 4 days of chicken development (out of 21 days of incubation), when the egg is opened the embryo is on top of the yolk, and its heart is on top of its body. This allows easy imaging of heart formation and heart development using non-invasive techniques, including regular optical microscopy. After day 4, the embryo starts sinking into the yolk, but still imaging technologies, such as ultrasound, can tomographically image the embryo and its heart in vivo. Importantly, because like the human heart the avian heart develops into a four-chambered heart with valves, heart malformations and pathologies that human babies suffer can be replicated in avian embryos, allowing a unique developmental window into human congenital heart disease. Here, we review avian heart formation and provide comparisons to the mammalian heart.
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Keywords:
cardiogenesis; avian embryo; intravital imaging; transgenic quail; optical coherence tomography; time lapse microscopy; laser microscopy; optical microscopy; ultrasound; micro computed tomography
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MDPI and ACS Style
Lansford, R.; Rugonyi, S. Follow Me! A Tale of Avian Heart Development with Comparisons to Mammal Heart Development. J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 2020, 7, 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd7010008
AMA Style
Lansford R, Rugonyi S. Follow Me! A Tale of Avian Heart Development with Comparisons to Mammal Heart Development. Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease. 2020; 7(1):8. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd7010008
Chicago/Turabian StyleLansford, Rusty, and Sandra Rugonyi. 2020. "Follow Me! A Tale of Avian Heart Development with Comparisons to Mammal Heart Development" Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease 7, no. 1: 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd7010008
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