Finding triggers of birth defects in an embryo heart
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found a way to create three-dimensional maps of the stress that circulating blood places on the developing heart in an animal model – a key to understanding triggers of heart defects. The team has begun testing the technology to uncover how alcohol, drugs and other factors set off events that result in defects found in newborn humans. Passing blood cells drag on the endothelial cells that line the growing heart, a phenomenon called shear stress, which has been linked to changes in gene expression that results in defects, most often in the valves. But ...
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