Figures
Cyp26 Enzymes Facilitate Second Heart Field Progenitor Addition and Maintenance of Ventricular Integrity
The embryonic heart is particularly sensitive to inappropriate retinoic acid levels, with cardiac outflow tract defects among the most common retinoic acid-induced malformations. In this study Rydeen and Waxman investigate the hearts of zebrafish embryos deficient for the enzymes needed to degrade retinoic acid. The authors show that losing the ability to limit retinoic acid levels results in outflow tract defects via two mechanisms; the embryos fail to add second heart field progenitors to the outflow tract, and disruption of the extracellular environment causes loss of ventricular integrity. The image shows a confocal image stack of the ventricle from a two day-old zebrafish heart (green – cardiomyocytes; red – cadherin 2).
Image Credit: Ariel B. Rydeen
Citation: (2016) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 14(11) November 2016. PLoS Biol 14(11): ev14.i11. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v14.i11
Published: November 30, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Rydeen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The embryonic heart is particularly sensitive to inappropriate retinoic acid levels, with cardiac outflow tract defects among the most common retinoic acid-induced malformations. In this study Rydeen and Waxman investigate the hearts of zebrafish embryos deficient for the enzymes needed to degrade retinoic acid. The authors show that losing the ability to limit retinoic acid levels results in outflow tract defects via two mechanisms; the embryos fail to add second heart field progenitors to the outflow tract, and disruption of the extracellular environment causes loss of ventricular integrity. The image shows a confocal image stack of the ventricle from a two day-old zebrafish heart (green – cardiomyocytes; red – cadherin 2).
Image Credit: Ariel B. Rydeen