title: Blood flow through the embryonic heart outflow tract during cardiac looping in HH13-HH18 chicken embryos.
abstract: Blood flow is inherently linked to embryonic cardiac development, as haemodynamic forces exerted by flow stimulate mechanotransduction mechanisms that modulate cardiac growth and remodelling. This study evaluated blood flow in the embryonic heart outflow tract (OFT) during normal development at each stage between HH13 and HH18 in chicken embryos, in order to characterize changes in haemodynamic conditions during critical cardiac looping transformations. Two-dimensional optical coherence tomography was used to simultaneously acquire both structural and Doppler flow images, in order to extract blood flow velocity and structural information and estimate haemodynamic measures. From HH13 to HH18, peak blood flow rate increased by 2.4-fold and stroke volume increased by 2.1-fold. Wall shear rate (WSR) and lumen diameter data suggest that changes in blood flow during HH13-HH18 may induce a shear-mediated vasodilation response in the OFT. Embryo-specific four-dimensional computational fluid dynamics modelling at HH13 and HH18 complemented experimental observations and indicated heterogeneous WSR distributions over the OFT. Characterizing changes in haemodynamics during cardiac looping will help us better understand the way normal blood flow impacts proper cardiac development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Madeline
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Midgett
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Venkat Keshav
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Chivukula
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Calder
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dorn
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA rugonyis@ohsu.edu.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rugonyi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002642:Chick Embryo; D003198:Computer Simulation; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000378:metabolism; D006439:Hemodynamics; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D009024:Morphogenesis; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D033081:Shear Strength; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence
keywords: cardiovascular development; chick embryo; haemodynamics; optical coherence tomography; outflow tract; subject-specific haemodynamic modelling