Changes in Biomechanical Environment of Cardiac Cells in Chick Embryos After Cardiac Outflow Tract Banding

Embryonic cardiac cells are constantly exposed to biomechanical environments including cyclic stretch and wall shear stress (WSS), which regulate behaviors of cardiac cells, critical to heart development and function [1]. Disturbances in biomechanical environment may contribute to the heart defects that affect 1% of newborns each year in US. However, changes in the biomechanical signals that affect heart development remain undescribed, partly due to a lack of methodology to quantify the biomechanical environment in the embryonic heart.