Heart development: molecular insights into cardiac specification and early morphogenesis.

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Technical University of Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. t.brand@tu-bs.de

Developmental biology 2003 Jun 1

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The heart develops from two bilateral heart fields that are formed during early gastrulation. In recent years, signaling pathways that specify cardiac mesoderm have been extensively analyzed. In addition, a battery of transcription factors that regulate different aspects of cardiac morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation have been identified and characterized in model organisms. At the anterior pole, a secondary heart field is formed, which in its molecular make-up, appears to be similar to the primary heart field. The cardiac outflow tract and the right ventricle to a large extent are derivatives of this anterior heart field. Cardiac mesoderm receives positional information by which it is patterned along the three body axes. The molecular control of left-right axis development has received particular attention, and the underlying regulatory network begins to emerge. Cardiac chamber development involves the activation of a transcription program that is different from the one present in the primary heart field and regulates cardiac morphogenesis in a region-specific manner. This review also attempts to identify areas in which additional research is needed to fully understand early cardiac development.

Citation

Thomas Brand. Heart development: molecular insights into cardiac specification and early morphogenesis. Developmental biology. 2003 Jun 1;258(1):1-19