title: Vegfa Impacts Early Myocardium Development in Zebrafish.
abstract: Vascular endothelial growth factor A (Vegfa) signaling regulates cardiovascular development. However, the cellular mechanisms of Vegfa signaling in early cardiogenesis remain poorly understood. The present study aimed to understand the differential functions and mechanisms of Vegfa signaling in cardiac development. A loss-of-function approach was utilized to study the effect of Vegfa signaling in cardiogenesis. Both morphants and mutants forvegfaadisplay defects in cardiac looping and chamber formation, especially the ventricle. Vegfa regulates the heart morphogenesis in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the initial fusion of the bilateral myocardium population is delayed rather than endocardium. The results demonstrate that Vegfa signaling plays a direct impact on myocardium fusion, indicating that it is the initial cause of the heart defects. The heart morphogenesis is regulated by Vegfa in a dose-dependent manner, and later endocardium defects may be secondary to impaired myocardium-endocardium crosstalk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Shanghai Children's Medical Center Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China. zhudiqi@scmc.com.cn.
authors.forename: Diqi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Zhongshan Hospital, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China. yabofang@126.com.
authors.forename: Yabo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Zhongshan Hospital, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China. kungao2016@126.com.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Shanghai Children's Medical Center Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China. shenjie@scmc.com.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Zhongshan Hospital, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China. zhongtaofudan@126.com.
authors.forename: Tao P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Shanghai Children's Medical Center Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China. lifen@scmc.com.cn.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism; D038081:Organogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
keywords: Vegfa; cardiac fusion; zebrafish