Genetic Dissection of Heart Development

2000 ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
J.-N. Chen ◽  
M. C. Fishman
Author(s):  
Larry F. Lemanski ◽  
Eldridge M. Bertke ◽  
J. T. Justus

A recessive mutation has been recently described in the Mexican Axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum; in which the heart forms structurally, but does not contract (Humphrey, 1968. Anat. Rec. 160:475). In this study, the fine structure of myocardial cells from normal (+/+; +/c) and cardiac lethal mutant (c/c) embryos at Harrison's stage 40 was compared. The hearts were fixed in a 0.1 M phosphate buffered formaldehyde-glutaraldehyde-picric acid-styphnic acid mixture and were post fixed in 0.1 M s-collidine buffered 1% osmium tetroxide. A detailed study of heart development in normal and mutant embryos from stages 25-46 will be described elsewhere.


Author(s):  
C. Uphoff ◽  
C. Nyquist-Battie

Fetal Alcohol Syndrone (FAS) is a syndrome with characteristic abnormalities resulting from prenatal exposure to ethanol. In many children with FAS syndrome gross pathological changes in the heart are seen with septal defects the most prevalent abnormality recorded. Few studies in animal models have been performed on the effects of ethanol on heart development. In our laboratory, it has been observed that prenatal ethanol exposure of Swiss albino mice results in abnormal cardiac muscle ultrastructure when mice were examined at birth and compared to pairfed and normal controls. Fig. 1 is an example of the changes that are seen in the ethanol-exposed animals. These changes include enlarged mitochondria with loss of inner mitochondrial membrane integrity and loss of myofibrils. Morphometric analysis substantiated the presence of these alterations from normal cardiac ultrastructure. The present work was undertaken to determine if the pathological changes seen in the newborn mice prenatally exposed to ethanol could be reversed with age and abstinence.


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