LARRY TABER

..This study illustrates the interrelationship between form and function in the early embryonic heart...

..g. the heart, arteries and brain), wound healing and sea urchin gastrulation. Understanding the fundamental principles of tissue construction can help engineers design new strategies for creating replacement tissues and organs in vitro...

..Understanding morphogenetic mechanisms would facilitate research devoted to preventing and treating congenital heart malformations caused by looping abnormalities...

..For each perturbation, the models predict the correct qualitative response. These studies provide new insight into the mechanisms that drive and regulate cardiac looping...

..Other processes, however, may require secondary mechanisms or perturbations to proceed to completion...

..The model was tested further in studies that perturbed normal cardiac morphogenesis. The model, taken together with the new experimental data, supports our hypothesis for the mechanisms that drive early looping...

..These results should be useful for computational models of the looping heart...

..Results presented for bending of bilayered beams and invagination of cylindrical and spherical shells provide insight into some of the mechanical aspects that must be considered in studying morphogenetic mechanisms...

..This method may not be as useful, however, for structures that behave as a beam on a foundation...

..These results suggest that the looping embryonic heart has the ability to adapt to changes in the mechanical environment, which may play a regulatory role during morphogenesis...

..A second model shows that a relatively stiff IC may facilitate bending of the heart tube during looping...

..This study shows that a combination of experimental and computational mechanics can be used to evaluate competing hypotheses of morphogenesis, and illuminate the biomechanics of cortical folding...

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..In each simulation, the model predicts the correct response. Hence, these models provide new insight into the mechanical mechanisms that drive and regulate cardiac looping...

..Our results show that both tensions can affect looping, with surface tension potentially having a much greater effect. Moreover, we show that surface tension can alter results in one classic looping experiment...

..In these examples, microspheres are tracked using optical coherence tomography. This technique provides a new tool that can be used in studies of the mechanics of morphogenesis...

..These results provide a better understanding of the determinants of residual stress in arteries and could lend insight into the importance of constituent distributions in both natural and tissue-engineered blood vessels...

..These results illustrate the potential of OCT as a tool in studies of morphogenesis, as well as provide a better understanding of the mechanical forces that drive cardiac looping...

..Measured pressures likely correspond to regional variations in wall stress that may influence morphogenesis and function in the embryonic heart...

..The results of this study may help investigators searching for the link between gene expression and the mechanical processes that drive looping...

..Information on the regional material properties of the early embryonic brain will help illuminate the process of early brain morphogenesis...

..None of these drugs significantly affected looping during the studied stages. These results suggest that active contraction is not required for normal c-looping of the embryonic chick heart between stages 10 and 12...

..The models also suggest that the slow turnover rate of elastin limits longitudinal growth. These results should promote increased understanding of the causes of residual stress in arteries...

..The models show that the observed deformation after cutting can be caused by more growth in the gray matter than in the white matter, with the estimated tensile stress in the white matter being on the order of 100-1,000 Pa...

..Taken together, the results suggest that the proposed morphogenetic mechanisms provide the main tissue-level forces that drive HF formation...

..Taken together, these data suggest that ongoing actin polymerization is required for the bending component of cardiac c-looping, and we speculate that polymerization-driven myocardial cell shape changes cause this deformation...

..By measuring bovine blood flowing through a plastic tube, the linear dependence of the broadening on the flow speed was validated. The blood flow of the microvasculature in a mouse ear and a chicken embryo (stage 16) was also studied...

..In addition, the computational model created during the course of our research may someday lead to advanced models of the developing human heart, which is not amenable to direct experimental study. ..

..This software will open up new avenues for studying the mechanics of development in the cardiovascular, nervous, and other systems composed of soft tissue. ..

..This software will open up new avenues for studying the mechanics of development in the cardiovascular, nervous, and other systems composed of soft tissue. ..

..In addition, the computational model created during the course of our research may someday lead to advanced models of the developing human heart, which is not amenable to direct experimental study. ..

..Defining the biomechanical forces involved in looping would provide insight into this morphogenetic process and thereby help researchers searching for the link between gene expression and looping morphology. ..

..Prevention and treatment of these maladies requires understanding their root cause. This project will provide important new understanding of the morphogenetic mechanisms that create the embryonic brain and eye. ..