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Persistent Truncus Arteriosus
Persistent truncus arteriosus (PTA), often referred to simply as truncus arteriosus, is a rare form of congenital heart disease that presents at birth. In this condition, the embryological structure known as the truncus arteriosus (embryology), truncus arteriosus fails to properly divide into the pulmonary trunk and aorta. This results in one arterial trunk arising from the heart and providing mixed blood to the coronary arteries, pulmonary arteries, and systemic circulation. For the ICD-11, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code (IPCCC) was developed to standardize the nomenclature of congenital heart disease. Under this system, English is now the official language, and persistent truncus arteriosus should properly be termed common arterial trunk. Causes Most of the time, this defect occurs spontaneously. Genetic disorders and teratogens (viruses, metabolic imbalance, and industrial or pharmacological agents) ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congenital Heart Disease
A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly, congenital cardiovascular malformation, and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital heart defect is classed as a cardiovascular disease. Signs and symptoms depend on the specific type of defect. Symptoms can vary from none to life-threatening. When present, symptoms are variable and may include rapid breathing, bluish skin (cyanosis), poor weight gain, and feeling tired. CHD does not cause chest pain. Most congenital heart defects are not associated with other diseases. A complication of CHD is heart failure. Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect. In 2015, they were present in 48.9 million people globally. They affect between 4 and 75 per 1,000 live births, depending upon how they are diagnosed. In about 6 to 19 per 1,000 they cause a moderate to severe degree of problems. Congenital heart defects are th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bone Morphogenetic Protein
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are a group of growth factors also known as cytokines and as metabologens. Professor Marshall Urist and Professor Hari Reddi discovered their ability to induce the formation of bone and cartilage, BMPs are now considered to constitute a group of pivotal morphogenetic signals, orchestrating tissue architecture throughout the body. The important functioning of BMP signals in physiology is emphasized by the multitude of roles for dysregulated BMP signalling in pathological processes. Cancerous disease often involves misregulation of the BMP signalling system. Absence of BMP signalling is, for instance, an important factor in the progression of colon cancer, and conversely, overactivation of BMP signalling following reflux-induced esophagitis provokes Barrett's esophagus and is thus instrumental in the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Recombinant human BMPs (rhBMPs) are used in orthopedic applications such as spinal fusions, nonunions, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ventricle (heart)
A ventricle is one of two large chambers located toward the bottom of the heart that collect and expel blood towards the peripheral beds within the body and lungs. The blood pumped by a ventricle is supplied by an atrium, an adjacent chamber in the upper heart that is smaller than a ventricle. Interventricular means between the ventricles (for example the interventricular septum), while intraventricular means within one ventricle (for example an intraventricular block). In a four-chambered heart, such as that in humans, there are two ventricles that operate in a double circulatory system: the right ventricle pumps blood into the pulmonary circulation to the lungs, and the left ventricle pumps blood into the systemic circulation through the aorta. Structure Ventricles have thicker walls than atria and generate higher blood pressures. The physiological load on the ventricles requiring pumping of blood throughout the body and lungs is much greater than the pressure generated by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Arteries
The great arteries are the primary arteries that carry blood away from the heart, which include: * ''Pulmonary artery'': the vessel that carries oxygen-depleted blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. * ''Aorta'': the blood vessel through which oxygenated blood from the left ventricle enters the systemic circulation. Development The great arteries originate from the aortic arches during embryonic development. The aortic arches start as five pairs of symmetrical vessels connecting the heart with the dorsal aorta but then undergo a significant remodelling, in which some of these vessels regress (aortic arches 1 and 2), the 3rd pair of arches contribute to form the common carotids, the right 4th will contribute to the base and central part of the right subclavian artery, while the left 4th will form the central portion of the aortic arch. The 5th pair of vessels only form in some cases without any known contribution to the final structure of the great arteries. The right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Muscle
Smooth muscle is one of the three major types of vertebrate muscle tissue, the others being skeletal and cardiac muscle. It can also be found in invertebrates and is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. It is non- striated, so-called because it has no sarcomeres and therefore no striations (''bands'' or ''stripes''). It can be divided into two subgroups, ''single-unit'' and ''multi-unit'' smooth muscle. Within single-unit muscle, the whole bundle or sheet of smooth muscle cells contracts as a syncytium. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs, including the stomach, intestines, bladder and uterus. In the walls of blood vessels, and lymph vessels, (excluding blood and lymph capillaries) it is known as vascular smooth muscle. There is smooth muscle in the tracts of the respiratory, urinary, and reproductive systems. In the eyes, the ciliary muscles, iris dilator muscle, and iris sphincter muscle are types of smooth muscles. The iris dilator and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connexin
Connexins (Cx)TC# 1.A.24, or gap junction proteins, are structurally related transmembrane proteins that assemble to form vertebrate gap junctions. An entirely different family of proteins, the innexins, forms gap junctions in invertebrates. Each gap junction is composed of two hemichannels, or connexons, which consist of homo- or heterohexameric arrays of connexins, and the connexon in one plasma membrane docks end-to-end with a connexon in the membrane of a closely opposed cell. The hemichannel is made of six connexin subunits, each of which consist of four transmembrane segments. Gap junctions are essential for many physiological processes, such as the coordinated depolarization of cardiac muscle, proper embryonic development, and the conducted response in microvasculature. Connexins also have non-channel dependant functions relating to cytoskeleton and cell migration. For these reasons, mutations in connexin-encoding genes can lead to functional and developmental abnormalitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gap Junction
Gap junctions are membrane channels between adjacent cells that allow the direct exchange of cytoplasmic substances, such small molecules, substrates, and metabolites. Gap junctions were first described as ''close appositions'' alongside tight junctions, however, electron microscopy studies in 1967 led to gap junctions being named as such to be distinguished from tight junctions. They bridge a 2-4 nm gap between cell membranes. Gap junctions use protein complexes known as connexons, composed of connexin proteins to connect one cell to another. Gap junction proteins include the more than 26 types of connexin, as well as at least 12 non-connexin components that make up the gap junction complex or ''nexus,'' including the tight junction protein ZO-1—a protein that holds membrane content together and adds structural clarity to a cell, sodium channels, and aquaporin. More gap junction proteins have become known due to the development of next-generation sequencing. Connexins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forkhead
FOX (forkhead box) proteins are a family of transcription factors that play important roles in regulating the expression of genes involved in cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and longevity. Many FOX proteins are important to embryonic development. FOX proteins also have pioneering transcription activity by being able to bind condensed chromatin during cell differentiation processes. There are 50 different FOX genes encoding FOX proteins in humans that are further divided into 19 subdivisions based on conserved sequence similarity. The defining feature of FOX proteins is the forkhead box, a sequence of 80 to 100 amino acids forming a motif that binds to DNA. This forkhead motif is also known as the winged helix, due to the butterfly-like appearance of the loops in the protein structure of the domain. FOX proteins are a subgroup of the helix-turn-helix class of proteins. Biological roles FOX genes are key elements in many developmental and biological processes, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GATA-6
The GATA transcription factor family consists of six DNA-binding proteins (GATA1-6) that regulates transcription of DNA due to their ability to bind to the DNA sequence "GATA" which can therefore affect different diseases. These six proteins are divided into two subfamilies of GATA1/2/3 and GATA4/5/6 based on differences in differentiation of stem cell tissues. All six proteins are required for differentiating mesoderm derived tissues. The difference is that GATA1/2/3 is required in development and differentiation of ectoderm derived tissues (such as hematopoietic and the central nervous system), while GATA 4/5/6 is for differentiation of endoderm derived tissues (such as embryonic stem cells of the heart and skin. Mutations in the GATA gene leads to problems in the thyroid, ears, kidney, heart, and can cause cancer. GATA can be used as biomarkers in predicting different diseases such as acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) in Down syndrome, colorectal, and breast cancer. GA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nkx2-5
Homeobox protein Nkx-2.5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''NKX2-5'' gene. Function Homeobox-containing genes play critical roles in regulating tissue-specific gene expression essential for tissue differentiation, as well as determining the temporal and spatial patterns of development (Shiojima et al., 1995). It has been demonstrated that a ''Drosophila'' homeobox-containing gene called 'tinman' is expressed in the developing dorsal vessel and in the equivalent of the vertebrate heart. Mutations in tinman result in loss of heart formation in the embryo, suggesting that tinman is essential for ''Drosophila'' heart formation. Furthermore, abundant expression of Csx, the presumptive mouse homolog of tinman, is observed only in the heart from the time of cardiac differentiation. CSX, the human homolog of murine Csx, has a homeodomain sequence identical to that of Csx and is expressed only in the heart, again suggesting that CSX plays an important role in human heart for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
