Effects of Notch on Developing and Adult Hearts (IMAGE)
Caption
These microscopy images demonstrate the effects of Notch signaling on the hearts of newborn mice (top) and of adult mice after a heart attack (bottom). In a normal neonatal heart (top left), the two major heart chambers (ventricles) are clearly separated by tissue (septum). But when Notch signaling was inactivated in an embryo’s heart muscle cells, the septum between the ventricles of the newborn mouse's heart was incomplete. The same defect commonly occurs in humans with congenital heart disease, often leading to circulatory distress. In the images of adult hearts (bottom), healthy tissue is shown in red and damaged tissue in blue. Normally (bottom left), a heart attack causes extensive tissue damage to the left ventricle (right-hand cavity), but mice in which Notch was reactivated after the heart attack had reduced tissue damage (bottom right) and improved cardiac function.
Credit
Kratsios/EMBL
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