European researchers investigated the impact of oxygen levels in the embryo on heart development. Their results have important ramifications for the study of heart diseases.
Cardiac development is a complex process that integrates various parameters to drive cardiac progenitor differentiation into the myocardial, smooth muscle and endothelial structures of the heart. Cardiogenesis takes place under conditions of low oxygen but the molecular mechanisms controlling the adaptation to hypoxia remain poorly understood.
Further details: Low oxygen makes the heart grow