Isomyosin expression patterns during rat heart morphogenesis: an immunohistochemical study.

An immunohistochemical study of cardiac alpha and beta myosin heavy chain (MHC) expression during rat heart morphogenesis was performed. In tubular hearts (embryonic days, ED10-11) coexpression of both cardiac alpha and beta MHC was found throughout the heart, except for the left free wall of the atrium, where only cardiac alpha MHC is detected. A transition of coexpression to single expression of either cardiac alpha or beta MHC begins at the same time in both atria and ventricles but requires a longer time for completion in the ventricules; in the atria transition takes place during the period ED 12-13 and in the ventricles during ED12-15. Furthermore, expression of cardiac alpha and beta MHC was detected in the sinus venosus, and cardiac alpha MHC expression was detected in the pulmonary veins. A comparison of the results obtained in chicken embryos revealed that in tubular hearts the expression pattern is similar, whereas in later developmental stages two major differences were observed: 1) transition of coexpression to single expression in rat ventricles appears to take a longer developmental period; 2) the persistence of areas of coexpression in the sinoatrial junction, dorsal mesocardium, atrioventricular junction, and outflow tract, as found in the chicken embryo in later developmental stages, is not found in the rat heart.