The inverted heart
What if your heart had been built upside down?
Normally, the heart has four chambers: two atria at the top and two ventricles at the bottom. The right ventricle sends blood to the lungs, while the left ventricle sends blood to the rest of the body. But in some babies, the ventricles can form in the wrong place.
The result: poor blood circulation, leading to serious heart disease.
Sigolène Meilhac, a researcher at the Institut Pasteur and the Institut Imagine, and her team have discovered that the right-left position of the heart is established in two stages during embryo development. When the second stage goes awry, the heart can develop incorrectly.
Using ultra-precise imaging, the researchers tracked this process in the hearts of mice and observed structures similar to those seen in some children. This suggests that the mechanisms underlying these malformations are similar in mice and humans.
This discovery provides a better understanding of the origin and diversity of heart malformations and paves the way for better diagnosis and care for children.
Image credit: Imagine-Institut Pasteur Unit of Heart Morphogenesis
(video in french, english subtitles available translated by AI)