Growing Beats

Building a heart carries a lot of pressure. This vital organ must beat or contract regularly, every few moments, for an entire life. Understanding the steps involved in building this zebrafish heart offers clues to similar mechanisms in developing human hearts. Pictured using a 3D microscopy technique, we see heart muscle cells known as cardiomyocytes (highlighted in white with their nuclei in yellow) in the top chambers – the atria – of a young zebrafish’s heart temporarily paused in its beating. Using this and other tools, scientists compare how cardiomyocytes develop into the cardiac muscle lining the atria and the lower chambers, the ventricles. Surprisingly, they find different chemical signals and patterns of growth shaping the different chambers – with stretched cardiomyocytes in the atria possibly allowing for speedy transfer of electrical impulses. Exploring these differences may yield clues to heart abnormalities during development, or later problems such as heart arrhythmias.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Marga Albu and colleagues
• Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Department of Developmental Genetics, Bad Nauheim, Germany
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, September 2024