File:Heart valve histology 01.jpg

Developing Heart Valve Histology and Gene Expression

Routine histology and probe-specific analyses identify tropoelastin/elastin gene and protein expression patterns in human semilunar valve leaflets.

(A,B) Routine histology (A; Movat's stain) and immunofluorescence staining with an antibody against tropoelastin/elastin (B; green) of a 9-week human fetal semilunar valve leaflet section. In B, DAPI-stained nuclei are in blue and α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA)-expressing cells are in red. Arrows indicate tropoelastin/elastin in the layer facing the ventricles.

(C) qPCR data of ELN expression; *P<0.05, first trimester versus adolescent and adult tissues. Error bars indicate s.d.

(D) Movat's stain of an 11-week tissue section showing the fetal outflow tract [red arrow points to elastic fibers (black) within the large arteries]. By contrast, no elastin-containing fibers are visible in the semilunar leaflet (blue arrow).

(E) qPCR data comparing ELN expression in developing large outflow tract vessels and leaflets. *P<0.05, first trimester large vessels versus adolescent and adult vessels and all valve groups; **P<0.05, second trimester large vessels versus all vessel and valve groups.

(F-H) Adult (50 years) aortic valve leaflet stained with Movat's stain. f, fibrosa; s, spongiosa; v, ventricularis.

Scale bars: 50 μm in A,B; 200 μm in D,H; 500 μm in F,G.

Links: Heart valve histology | Fetal 9wk heart valve histology | Fetal 11wk heart valve histology

Reference

<pubmed>23637335</pubmed>| Development

Copyright

© 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.