NeuroVascular Patterning in the Giant Danio (Devario Malabaricus) Heart
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Document Type
Abstract
Publication Date
10-2-2019
Abstract
Neurovascular patterning reveals close association and functional dependence of nerves and vessels in various tissues. In the mammalian heart, intrinsic cardiac nerves work to control cardiac output through modulation of heart rate and stroke. Researchers have theorized that cardiac nerves may guide the development of cardiac vasculature in late larval and early juvenile teleost fish. The extent to which intrinsic cardiac nerves modulate vascular function in zebrafish and giant danio heart is not known. We hypothesize that neurovascular patterning show close spatial correlation between nerves and vessels in fish hearts. For these studies, we developed a method for quantifying the spatial relationship between cardiac nerves and vessels. Our results show first that cardiac innervation in both the giant danio and zebrafish heart precedes the emergence of the coronary vasculature. Second, we found close spatial correlation between nerves and vessels in the atrioventricular junction of the heart where the vessels emerge. Third, close spatial correlation also observed in the adult heart. However, that correlation was seen primarily between cardiac nerves and large cardiac vessels, but not in smaller vessels. Our results support for the notion that larger vessels are directly regulated by cardiac nerves while small vessels are not. Our results in the larval and juvenile hearts support the hypothesis that nerves may provide guidance cues to the developing coronary vasculature, however the mechanism for that guidance is not known. Taken together, these findings suggest that giant danio and zebrafish hearts can serve as an important model to study the role of nerves in coronary vascular development, and in vascular physiology in adult hearts.
Project Mentor
Prof. P. Lafontant, PhD
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Emma and Koch, Alyssa, "NeuroVascular Patterning in the Giant Danio (Devario Malabaricus) Heart" (2019). Annual Student Research Poster Session. 177.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/srfposters/177
Funding and Acknowledgements
Funding: National Institutes of Health Grant