Outflow tract cushions perform a critical valve-like function in the early embryonic heart requiring BMPRIA-mediated signaling in cardiac neural crest.

ABSTRACT: Neural crest-specific ablation of BMP type IA receptor (BMPRIA) causes embryonic lethality by embryonic day (E) 12.5, and this was previously postulated to arise from a myocardial defect related to signaling by a small population of cardiac neural crest cells (cNCC) in the epicardium. However, as BMP signaling via cNCC is also required for proper development of the outflow tract cushions, precursors to the semilunar valves, a plausible alternate or additional hypothesis is that heart failure may result from an outflow tract cushion defect. To investigate whether the outflow tract cushions may serve as dynamic valves in regulating hemodynamic function in the early embryo, in this study we used noninvasive ultrasound biomicroscopy-Doppler imaging to quantitatively assess hemodynamic function

SUBMITTER: Nomura-Kitabayashi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2781366 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature