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(Circulation Research. 2007;100:943.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Building the Right Ventricle

Robert G. Kelly

From the Inserm Avenir Group, CNRS UMR6216, Developmental Biology Institute of Marseilles-Luminy, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, France.

Correspondence to Robert G. Kelly, CNRS UMR6216, Developmental Biology Institute of Marseilles-Luminy, Campus de Luminy Case 907, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France. E-mail kelly@ibdml.univ-mrs.fr

See related article, pages 1000–1007

Key Words: heart development • second heart field • outflow tract • right ventricle

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Abnormal development of the arterial pole of the heart underlies a significant fraction of congenital heart defects. Critical steps in arterial pole development are formation of the myocardial outflow tract (or conotruncal region) and its subsequent division into separate left and right ventricular outlets. Division of the cylindrical outflow tract is a complex morphogenetic process driven by cardiac neural crest cell influx and associated with rotation of the myocardial wall and cell death, ensuring alignment of the ascending aorta and pulmonary trunk with the left and right ventricles.^1–3 The transient nature of the embryonic outflow tract raises existential but also clinically relevant questions as to the origin of this structure and its fate. In an article in this issue, Rana et al have addressed the latter in the developing chick heart with important inferences for the origin of the right ventricle.⁴

Using scanning confocal microscopy, Rana et al monitored the rise and fall of the myocardial outflow tract. After a 4-fold increase in length to reach a maximum extension the myocardial outflow tract shortens 5-fold. At the same time a nonmyocardial component appears, giving rise to the ascending aorta and pulmonary trunk. Rana et al focused on the retraction phase by following the fate of clusters of DiI labeled cells in ovo at 2 developmental timepoints and concluded that the proximal outflow tract gives rise to a large part of the right ventricular free wall. Although the concept of ventricularisation of the proximal outflow tract (or conal absorption) to form . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Trabeculated Right Ventricular Free Wall in the Chicken Heart Forms by Ventricularization of the Myocardium Initially Forming the Outflow Tract

M. Sameer Rana, Noortje C.A. Horsten, Sabina Tesink-Taekema, Wout H. Lamers, Antoon F.M. Moorman, and Maurice J.B. van den Hoff
Circ. Res. 2007 100: 1000-1007. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]