Relating normal human cardiac development to the anatomical findings in the congenitally malformed heart.

A proper appreciation of cardiac development can now provide the necessary background to understand the anatomical findings in the congenitally malformed heart. We recently presented an account of human cardiac development based on reconstructions of histological datasets from human embryos aged between 3.5 and 8 weeks subsequent to conception.

Cardiac development demystified by use of the HDBR atlas.

Much has been learned over the last half century regarding the molecular and genetic changes that take place during cardiac development. As yet, however, these advances have not been translated into knowledge regarding the marked changes that take place in the anatomical arrangements of the different cardiac components. As such, therefore, many aspects of cardiac development are still described on the basis of speculation rather than evidence.

Spatial transcriptomics reveals novel genes during the remodelling of the embryonic human arterial valves.

Abnormalities of the arterial valves, including bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) are amongst the most common congenital defects and are a significant cause of morbidity as well as predisposition to disease in later life. Despite this, and compounded by their small size and relative inaccessibility, there is still much to understand about how the arterial valves form and remodel during embryogenesis, both at the morphological and genetic level. Here we set out to address this in human embryos, using Spatial Transcriptomics (ST).

Development of the arterial roots and ventricular outflow tracts.

The separation of the outflow tract of the developing heart into the systemic and pulmonary arterial channels remains controversial and poorly understood. The definitive outflow tracts have three components. The developing outflow tract, in contrast, has usually been described in two parts.