BULLDOG
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- Jun 3, 2014
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Anti-abortion proponents claim that there is a beating heart present at six weeks. The fact is that at six weeks there is only a rudimentary tube that can eventually become a heart, and a few quivering cells that will eventually become the pacemaker which supplies electrical pulses controlling the heart beat. There is no heart structure present to actually behave as a heart behaves. No valves, no chambers, no muscle to pump anything. The preliminary structures that will eventually become parts of the heart are not a heart, and claiming they are is vast exaggeration at best. Recent research has shown when major structures of the heart develop, and it is amazingly over a four day period 124 days into the pregnancy. Before this four day period, the beginnings of the heart are not viable, and can not survive outside the womb.
Researchers and neonatologists studying fetal cardiac development have typically run into critical limitations, as many of the known structures of the human heart can only be identified in the latter stages of gestation. Now, a group of investigators at the University of Leeds has just published data, using cutting-edge imaging technology, that shows that major structures of a baby's heart form in just four days. Findings from the new study—published today in Scientific Reports in an article entitled “Ventricular Myocardium Development and the Role of Connexins in the Human Fetal Heart”—help identify the precise time when the four chambers of the heart develop, opening up the possibility that doctors could eventually be able to monitor babies during this critical phase of their development.
Remarkably, the research team found that the most dramatic changes occurred over a four-day period 124 days into the pregnancy. Within this brief period, the muscle tissue of the heart rapidly organizes. Cardiac fibers were laid down to form the helix shape of the heart, within which the four chambers of the heart form. Without this essential architecture in place, the fetal heart cannot survive outside the womb.
Researchers and neonatologists studying fetal cardiac development have typically run into critical limitations, as many of the known structures of the human heart can only be identified in the latter stages of gestation. Now, a group of investigators at the University of Leeds has just published data, using cutting-edge imaging technology, that shows that major structures of a baby's heart form in just four days. Findings from the new study—published today in Scientific Reports in an article entitled “Ventricular Myocardium Development and the Role of Connexins in the Human Fetal Heart”—help identify the precise time when the four chambers of the heart develop, opening up the possibility that doctors could eventually be able to monitor babies during this critical phase of their development.
Remarkably, the research team found that the most dramatic changes occurred over a four-day period 124 days into the pregnancy. Within this brief period, the muscle tissue of the heart rapidly organizes. Cardiac fibers were laid down to form the helix shape of the heart, within which the four chambers of the heart form. Without this essential architecture in place, the fetal heart cannot survive outside the womb.
Critical Moment of Fetal Heart Development Identified
The major structures of a baby's heart form in just four days, according to new research using the latest imaging techniques
www.genengnews.com