Junjie Chen1,
Lei Zhang2, John S. Allen3, Lingzhi Hu4,
Shelton D. Caruthers3, Gregory M. Lanza3, Samuel A.
Wickline3
1Internal
Medicine, Washington University In Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United
States; 2Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis,
mo, United States; 3Internal Medicine, Washington University School
of Medicine, Saint Louis, mo, United States; 4Physics, Washington
University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, mo, United States
The new-born heart undergoes substantial structural and functional changes to accommodate the rapid switching from fetal to neonatal circulation immediately after birth. We hypothesized that three dimensional cardiomyocyte architecture might be required to adapt rapidly to accommodate programmed perinatal changes of cardiac function. Our results showed that the helical architecture of left ventricular cardiomyocytes was developed as early as mid-gestation period, After birth, cardiomyocytes architecture in the right ventricular free-wall and septum changed rapidly, illustrating the plasticity of cardiomyocyte architecture in response to the new demands of the left and right ventricular function.