A pictorial account of the human embryonic heart between 3.5 and 8 weeks of development

Heart development is topographically complex and requires visualization to understand its progression. No comprehensive 3-dimensional primer of human cardiac development is currently available. We prepared detailed reconstructions of 12 hearts between 3.5 and 8 weeks post fertilization, using Amira® 3D-reconstruction and Cinema4D®-remodeling software. The models were visualized as calibrated interactive 3D-PDFs. We describe the developmental appearance and subsequent remodeling of 70 different structures incrementally, using sequential segmental analysis. Pictorial timelines of structures highlight age-dependent events, while graphs visualize growth and spiraling of the wall of the heart tube. The basic cardiac layout is established between 3.5 and 4.5 weeks. Septation at the venous pole is completed at 6 weeks. Between 5.5 and 6.5 weeks, as the outflow tract becomes incorporated in the ventricles, the spiraling course of its subaortic and subpulmonary channels is transferred to the intrapericardial arterial trunks. The remodeling of the interventricular foramen is complete at 7 weeks. Hikspoors et al. generate a pictorial account of human embryonic heart development between 3.5 and 8 weeks. This resource provides detailed, interactive 3D anatomical models and quantifies the developmental milestones of key structures in cardiac function.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  Communications Biology

• Publication date

  2022-03-11

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/s42003-022-03153-xPMID 35277594PMCID 8917235
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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