Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Imaging Cleared Embryonic and Postnatal Hearts at Single-cell Resolution
Published on: October 7, 2016
Fashioning the vertebrate heart: earliest embryonic decisions
1Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown 02129, USA. fishman@cvrc.mgh.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Our goal here is to set out the types of unitary decisions made by heart progenitor cells, from their appearance in the heart field until they form the simple heart tube. This provides a context to evaluate cell fate, lineage and, finally, morphogenetic decisions that configure global heart form and function. Some paradigms for cellular differentiation and for pattern generation may be borrowed from invertebrates, but neither Drosophila nor Caenorhabditis elegans suffice to unravel higher order decisions. Genetic analyses in mouse and zebrafish may provide one entrance to these pathways.
Related Concept Videos
Gastrulation
Determination
Development of the Heart
As the embryo undergoes lateral folding, these paired tubes approach each other, merging into a single primitive heart tube by...

