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Updated: Jun 10, 2025

En Face Endocardial Cushion Preparation for Planar Morphogenesis Analysis in Mouse Embryos
Published on: July 27, 2022
Mesodermal fibronectin controls cell shape, polarity, and mechanotransduction in the second heart field during
Cecilia Arriagada1, Evan Lin2, Michael Schonning1
1Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, 185 South Orange Ave., Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
Abstract:
Failure in the elongation of the cardiac outflow tract (OFT) results in congenital heart disease due to the misalignment of the great arteries with the left and right ventricles. The OFT lengthens via the accretion of progenitors from the second heart field (SHF). SHF cells are exquisitely regionalized and organized into an epithelial-like layer, forming the dorsal pericardial wall (DPW). Tissue tension, cell polarity, and proliferation within the DPW are important for the addition of SHF-derived cells to the heart and OFT elongation. However, the genes controlling these processes are not completely characterized. Using conditional mutagenesis in the mouse, we show that fibronectin (FN1) synthesized by the mesoderm coordinates multiple cellular behaviors in the anterior DPW. FN1 is enriched in the anterior DPW and plays a role in OFT elongation by maintaining a balance between pro- and anti-adhesive cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions and controlling DPW cell shape, polarity, cohesion, proliferation, and mechanotransduction.
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