Coexpression of intermediate filament proteins in the chick embryo heart.

We studied the distribution of intermediate filament proteins during several stages of chick embryo heart development by indirect immunofluorescence and fluorescence-activated cell surface analysis. Vimentin is the predominant intermediate filament during the early stages of cardiac genesis, while desmin appears essentially with maturation. Desmin is the main subunit protein of intermediate filaments in the mature myocyte.

Morphometric study of right ventricle in 32 cases of tetralogy of Fallot.

The right ventricle was the object of a morphometric study in a total of 32 human hearts with tetralogy of Fallot. Most subjects died in the perinatal period and weighed between 720 and 5,000 g. Nine internal parameters were measured in each right ventricle and substituted into the appropriate stereometric formula to yield volumes for each right ventricular chamber.

The quantitative anatomy of the normal human heart in fetal and perinatal life.

A total of 367 human fetuses and newborn subjects weighing from 60 to 5000 g provided the material for a morphometric study of the heart. A total of 17 interventricular parameters were measured in each specimen, one of the parameters representing an innovation with regard to the classically used set of measurements. A new anatomo-geometric configuration is described for each ventricle along with a new component for the left ventricular outflow tract, designated as the aortic outflow tract.

Tetralogy of Fallot produced in chick embryos by mechanical interference with cardiogenesis.

The tetralogy of Fallot was produced experimentally in the chick embryo by altering the development of the conus and delaying the disappearance of the conoventricular groove. The experimental procedure used consisted of placing a ligature or cerclage around the proximal portion of the conus for 24 hr in embryos in Hamburger-Hamilton stages 17-21, thus altering cardiac hemodynamics particularly in the clonal region. At the same time the conus was prevented from aquiring its normal position owing to the persistence of the conoventricular groove.