Computational model for early cardiac looping.
Ann Biomed Eng
; 34(8): 1655-69, 2006 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-16732433
ABSTRACT
Looping is a vital event during early cardiac morphogenesis, as the initially straight heart tube bends and twists into a curved tube, laying out the basic pattern of the future four-chambered heart. Despite intensive study for almost a century, the biophysical mechanisms that drive this process are not well understood. To explore a recently proposed hypothesis for looping, we constructed a finite element model for the embryonic chick heart during the first phase of looping, called c-looping. The model includes the main structures of the early heart (heart tube, omphalomesenteric veins, and dorsal mesocardium), and the analysis features realistic three-dimensional geometry, nonlinear passive and active material properties, and anisotropic growth. As per our earlier hypothesis for c-looping, actin-based morpho-genetic processes (active cell shape change, cytoskeletal contraction, and cell migration) are simulated in specific regions of the model. The model correctly predicts the initial gross morphological shape changes of the heart, as well as distributions of morphogenetic stresses and strains measured in embryonic chick hearts. The model was tested further in studies that perturbed normal cardiac morphogenesis. The model, taken together with the new experimental data, supports our hypothesis for the mechanisms that drive early looping.
Buscar no Google
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Coração
/
Modelos Cardiovasculares
/
Morfogênese
/
Contração Miocárdica
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2006
Tipo de documento:
Article