Abnormal patterning of the aortic arch arteries does not evoke cardiac malformations

Ablation of the cardiac neural crest results in abnormal development of the aortic arch arteries leading to altered patterning of the great arteries. The cardiac outflow tract is also affected after neural crest ablation because normally a subset of neural crest cells migrates from the pharyngeal region to form the outflow septum. Using neural crest ablation, it has not been possible to separate the occurrence of aortic arch maldevelopment from cardiac outflow tract dysmorphogenesis. In order to determine whether normal aortic arch artery development is a prerequisite for normal outflow tract development, we have used a combination of antisense treatment with backtransplantation of cardiac neural folds to produce abnormal patterning of the aortic arch arteries. Paralogous groups of Hox messages with their anterior expression domains in pharyngeal arches 3, 4 and 6 were targeted. Antisense targeted to paralogous group 3 Hox message caused aortic arch 3 located within the pharyngeal arch to regress in a manner similar to aortic arch 2, while antisense targeted to paralogous group 5 Hox message caused the appearance of an additional pharyngeal arch containing a novel and completely independent aortic arch artery. Antisense treatment targeting paralogous group 4 Hox message led to no detectable cardiovascular phenotype in the first 6 days of development. While regression of arch artery 3 was associated with abnormal branching patterns of the aorta and pulmonary trunk, this did not involve abnormal separation of the aorta and pulmonary trunks, the semilunar valves or the subvalvular region of the outflow tract. Because none of these changes in pharyngeal or aortic arch artery development was accompanied by abnormal development of the cardiac outflow tract, it appears that normal patterning of the aortic arch arteries is not a prerequisite for normal heart development. Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) we were unable to detect changes in any of the Hox messages except group 4, thus, using this particular experimental strategy, we are unable to demonstrate or refute that expression of hox genes by cardiac neural crest cells controls aortic arch patterning. Development of the cardiac outflow tract was normal in each instance. This suggests that abnormal aortic arch patterning does not necessarily lead to cardiac malformations.