A Matter of the Heart: The African Clawed Frog Xenopus as a Model for Studying Vertebrate Cardiogenesis and Congenital Heart Defects

The African clawed frog, Xenopus, is a valuable non-mammalian model organism to investigate vertebrate heart development and to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of human congenital heart defects (CHDs). In this review, we outline the similarities between Xenopus and mammalian cardiogenesi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hempel, Annemarie, Kühl, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Review
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5715680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29367567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcdd3020021
Descripción
Sumario:The African clawed frog, Xenopus, is a valuable non-mammalian model organism to investigate vertebrate heart development and to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of human congenital heart defects (CHDs). In this review, we outline the similarities between Xenopus and mammalian cardiogenesis, and provide an overview of well-studied cardiac genes in Xenopus, which have been associated with congenital heart conditions. Additionally, we highlight advantages of modeling candidate genes derived from genome wide association studies (GWAS) in Xenopus and discuss commonly used techniques.

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