Copyright © 2006, European Society of Cardiology
FGF signalling in the cardiac fields
Cardiovascular Development Group, Department of Experimental Biology, University of Jaen, CU Las Lagunillas s/n, 23071 Jaen, Spain
* Tel.: +34 953 212763; fax: +34 953 211875. Email address: dfranco@ujaen.es
Received 3 May 2006; accepted 8 May 2006
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
See article by Marguerie et al. [6] (pages 50–60) in this issue.
The formation of the heart is a highly dynamic and rather complex process that involves distinct cell types at different developmental stages. For many years, the formation of the muscle layer of the developing heart was considered to be a continuous but single event that leads to the formation of a four-chambered heart from a single, cardiac straight tube. At present, we acknowledge that the formation of the heart is a continuous process, but yet the deployment of the myocardial component is genetically controlled by at least two distinct regulatory mechanisms involving thus two distinct promyocardial subpopulations.