Developmental Biology of the Heart

This review will detail the embryology and morphology of the heart. We will begin with the heart's origin in the lateral plate mesoderm of the early embryo, review its fusion into a linear heart tube, followed by looping and remodeling to create a four-chambered organ with pulmonary and systemic venous inflow and pulmonary and systemic arterial outflow. We will discuss important concepts in heart development at genetic, cellular, and physiologic levels and review some key experimental models and methods important to the study of cardiac development. This review will also serve to introduce some of the congenital heart defects that can result from abnormalities in development and some of the genetic syndromes that are linked to congenital heart defects.