Heart development Flashcards
Summarise Heart development
What is the pro-epicardial organ (PEO)?
What are the cardiac neural crest cells (CNCCs) derived from and what do they form?
- Here we can see the end region (anterior) and tail region (posterior) of the embryo. We can see the primitive streak where gastrulation is being initiated and cells of the epiblast and migrating in between the two bilateral layers to generate the endoderm and mesoderm. The mesodermal cells are of interest here, they will migrate and form the heart field in the shape of a crescent. We have the first and second heart field shown in different colours.
- From the cardiac crescent the cells have grown to form a single heart tube, the arterial pole is at the anterior end of the embryo and the venus pole is at the posterior end of the embryo. At the top end we have the outflow tract, the cells of the heart field primarily form the primitive heart tube (which will go onto to form tissue of the left ventricle) and the second heart field will form regions of the outflow tract, the right ventricle and atrial tissue).
- This is summarised in the last diagram
- The dots shown in purple are the pro-epicardial organ (PEO) – these are initially clustered towards the venus pole of the heart. They will migrate out and will surround the whole of heart and will form epicardium (shown in purple). The epicardial cells are important because they will form the coronary vasculature
- The cardiac neural crest cells (CNCCs) are derived from the neural tube and will give rise to tissues of the heart such as aortic arch and pulmonary artery and divide these two vessels from the OFT
How common is coronary heart disease?
What percentage of birth defects do they make up?
8/1000 births
25% of all birth defects
Ventricular septal defects are the most common
When does heart development begin and end?
• The heart is the first organ to develop and function which forms at week 3 up till week 10
What is the cardiac crescent derived from?
- The cardiac crescent is derived from mesodermal cells of the embryo
- It is the first recognisable as a crescent-shaped tube of myocardium
What happens to the myocardial heart tube?
- The myocardial heart tube will start to loop and fold and extend
- This will re-arrange the arterial and venus poles
- The venus pole will be brought up toward towards the arterial pole
- The chambers of the heart will expand
- The four chambers will begin to separate via the growth of various walls and structures that will divide the adult heart into four chambers
What is tinman?
What is its homologue?
A transcription factor part of the nk2 family in flies
Its homologue in mammals is nkx2.5.
- NKX is controlled by Dp, FGF and Wg (its homologue is the BMP family)
- The tinman gene controls heart related transcription factors that turn on effector genes of the heart. It will turn on gata expression in the hand, tbx gene and MEF2 which turns on muscle genes in the heart.
In mammals NKX will feed into GATA genes, TBX genes involved and the hand genes
What is the heart crescent composed off?
Mesodermal tissue
What are the angioblastic cords?
They give rise to the heart tube
Where does the heart tube move to?
- Remember the embryo will fold towards the midline along the AP axis forming the gut tube. This brings the heart in towards the adult position.
- Heart crescent and majority of cells added to it are from mesoderm
- Relative position of heart shifts from cranial to thoracic due to major embryonic morphogenesis, particularly of the neural tube and gut
How is the heart forming mesoderm set aside during gastrulation?
o BMP molecules are expressed at margin of the embryonic disk and anterior endoderm
o Wnt inhibitors anterior to embryonic disk and Wnt ligands posterior to embryonic disk
o Overlap of Wnt inhibitors and BMPs induces cardiac mesoderm
o BMP and FGF signals drive NKX2.5 and GATA 4,5 and 6. These transcription factors will turn on Mef2 and will turn on cardiac specific muscles.
What is the neural tube secreting and repressing?
What induces cardiac mesoderm?
Where is noggin and chordin being secreted from?
In a transverse section we can see the neural tube on the RHS which is secreting Wnt that will repress cardiac mesoderm so we get non-cardiac mesoderm adjacent to the neural tube. Signals from the anterior endoderm and lateral edges of the embryonic disk such as BMPs will induce the cardiac mesoderm.
As development proceeds Noggin and Chordin are being secreted from the Notochord that will form somatic mesoderm (non-cardiac mesoderm) adjacent to the neural tube. This will then secrete Wnt that supress cardiac mesoderm within the somatic mesoderm. Lateral to this we have BMP and FGF signals will drive NKX2.5 and GATA 4,5 and 6. These transcription factors will turn on Mef2 and will turn on cardiac specific muscles.
Summarise the origin of heart cells
- Bilateral heart-forming regions of mesoderm migrate from primitive streak
- Signals from endoderm and midline required; BMPs, Wnts and their antagonists & FGFs
- GATA, Nkx and Mef-2 transcription factors, and co-factors (e.g. FOGs – Friend of GATA), are induced in HFR
- GATA 4 required for fusion of paired HFR
What parts of the crescents fuse to form the left ventricle?
What does the endocardial tube attach to?
• Medial part of crescent expands
o This will become left ventricle
• Endocardial tube attaches to developing aortic arches cranially (outflow) and systemic veins caudally (inflow)
What regions make up heart crescent?
• Two distinct regions form the heart crescent: the first and second heart fields.
What will the first and second heart field give rise to?
- The first heart field will form the initial balloon structures of the heart tube, and will give rise to form the left ventricle and also the right and left atrium
- The second heart field will mainly contribute towards the cells of the outflow tract, the right ventricle and portions of the left and right atrium.
- The first heart field comes from the more anterior and ventral portion of the crescent
Where does the second heart field lie to the first heart field?
What does the second heart field express?
• The second heart field lies dorsal to the primary heart field which is characterised by the expression of a TF called Islet-1 along with NKX2.5
What does the second heart field divided into and what do these regions express?
• The second heart field can further be divided along the AP axis. The anterior portion will express FGF-10 and the posterior will express Tbx5 and the most posterior region is characterised by the expression Tbx18
How does the second heart field interact with the neural crest cells?
The second heart field will interact with the neural crest cells that will migrate from the neural tube into the pharyngeal arches and will interact with the heart field. As they migrate through the outflow tract they will spiral to populate the cardiac cushion mesenchyme and separate the common outflow tract into the aorta and pulmonary artery.