Zebrafish early cardiac connexin, Cx36.7/Ecx, regulates myofibril orientation and heart morphogenesis by establishing Nkx2.5 expression.

ABSTRACT: Heart development is a precisely coordinated process of cellular proliferation, migration, differentiation, and integrated morphogenetic interactions, and therefore it is highly susceptible to developmental anomalies such as the congenital heart disease (CHD). One of the major causes of CHD has been shown to be the mutations in key cardiac transcription factors, including nkx2.5. Here, we report the analysis of zebrafish mutant ftk that showed a progressive heart malformation in the later stages of heart morphogenesis. Our analyses revealed that the cardiac muscle maturation and heart morphogenesis in ftk mutants were impaired because of the disorganization of myofibrils. Notably, we found that the expression of nkx2.5 was down-regulated in the ftk heart despite the normal expression of ga

SUBMITTER: Sultana N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2290751 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature