An overview of cardiac morphogenesis.

Jean-Marc Schleich (1, 2) , Tariq Abdulla (3) , Ron Summers (3) , Lucile Houyel (4)

1 LTSI - Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l'Image
2 Service de cardiologie et maladies vasculaires [Rennes] = Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery [Rennes]
3 Research School of Systems Engineering
4 Service de chirurgie des cardiopathies congénitales

Accurate knowledge of normal cardiac development is essential for properly understanding the morphogenesis of congenital cardiac malformations that represent the most common congenital anomaly in newborns. The heart is the first organ to function during embryonic development and is fully formed at 8 weeks of gestation. Recent studies stemming from molecular genetics have allowed specification of the role of cellular precursors in the field of heart development. In this article we review the different steps of heart development, focusing on the processes of alignment and septation. We also show, as often as possible, the links between abnormalities of cardiac development and the main congenital heart defects. The development of animal models has permitted the unraveling of many mechanisms that potentially lead to cardiac malformations. A next step towards a better knowledge of cardiac development could be multiscale cardiac modelling.

Mots clés: Normal heart development; Embryology; Cardiac morphogenesis; Congenital heart defects

Domaines: Ingénierie biomédicale

Jean-Marc Schleich, Tariq Abdulla, Ron Summers, Lucile Houyel. An overview of cardiac morphogenesis.. Archives of cardiovascular diseases, 2013, 106 (11), pp.612-23. ⟨10.1016/j.acvd.2013.07.001⟩. ⟨inserm-00941964⟩