Embryonic Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) as a Model of Cardiac Biology and Development

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease remains one of the top contributors to morbidity and mortality in the United States. Increasing evidence suggests that many processes, pathways, and programs observed during development and organogenesis are recapitulated in adults in the face of disease. Therefore, a heightened understanding of cardiac development and organogenesis will help increase our understanding of developmental defects and cardiovascular diseases in adults. Chicks have long served as a model system in which to study developmental problems. Detailed descriptions of morphogenesis, low cost, accessibility, ease of manipulation, and the optimization of genetic engineering techniques have made chicks a robust model for studying development and make it a powerful platform for cardiovascular research. This review summarizes the cardiac developmental milestones of embryonic chickens, practical considerations when working with chicken embryos, and techniques available for use in chicks (including tissue chimeras, genetic manipulations, and live imaging). In addition, this article highlights examples that accentuate the utility of the embryonic chicken as model system in which to study cardiac development, particularly epicardial development, and that underscore the importance of how studying development informs our understanding of disease.

Canine infantile left ventricular noncompaction

“…In two independent reports, LVNC was described in a Maine Coon-cross cat that was heterozygous for the cardiac myosin binding protein C mutation (A31P), in 2017 [6], and in a two-month-old kitten affected by Purkinje fiber dysplasia, in 2009 [5]. Experimentally, LVNC is being studied in transgenic mouse models and in species in which myocardial trabeculation is ordinarily present, such as chicks and adult fish [2,7,8,[16][17][18][19][20]. To the author's best knowledge, this is the first report of LVNC in a canine patient.…”

From the Farm to the Lab: How Chicken Embryos Contribute to the Field of Teratology

“…For example, following the first 3 days of development when gastrulation and neurulation occurs, heart development quickly follows (Hamburger and Hamilton, 1951). Followed rapidly from 3 days, by the limb buds, together with the formation of other organs like eyes, ear and brain (Hamburger and Hamilton, 1951;Davey et al, 2018;Vilches-Moure, 2019; Figure 1). Together with the comparable embryology and physiology, there is a high genome conservation between mammals and chicken.…”

Beyond the Chicken: Alternative Avian Models for Developmental Physiological Research

“…Animal models have long been extensively employed in biomedical research—for an entry into the substantial literature, see Bähr and Wolf ( 2012 ), Andersson ( 2016 ), Bolker ( 2017 ), Andersen and Winter ( 2019 ), and Robinson et al ( 2019 ). Birds of all developmental stages play an important role in biomedical research and have provided major insights into processes in development (Bolin and Burggren, 2013 ; Nowak-Sliwinska et al, 2014 ; Burggren et al, 2016 ; Towers, 2018 ; Burggren and Rojas Antich, 2021 ), aging (Holmes, 2004 ; Swanberg et al, 2010 ; Austad, 2011 ), physiology (Vilches-Moure, 2019 ; Williams et al, 2020 ), immunology (Davison, 2003 ; Kohonen et al, 2007 ), infectious and other diseases (Hawkridge, 2014 ; Wang and Wang, 2016 ), and pharmaceutical testing (Datar and Bhonde, 2011 ; Bjornstad et al, 2015 ; Wu et al, 2018 ), to name just a few studies in just a few of the many disciplines that have exploited and benefitted from avian models.…”