Hemodynamics of the stage 12 to stage 29 chick embryo.

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Abstract
The heart is the first functioning organ in the embryo and provides blood flow during cardiac morphogenesis from a muscle-wrapped tube a few cells thick to the four-chambered pump. We described the hemodynamics of the chick embryo from stage 12 (50 hours of a 21-day incubation) to stage 29 (6 days), during which the embryo weight increased 120-fold. We measured ventricular, embryo and extraembryonic vascular bed wet weights, dorsal aortic blood flow with a directional pulsed-Doppler velocity meter, and ventricular and vitelline arterial blood pressures with a servo-null micropressure system. The data are reported as mean +/- SEM. With rapid development and morphogenesis, dorsal aortic blood flow increased from 0.015 +/- 0.004 to 2.40 +/- 0.20 mm3/sec parallel to the geometric increase of wet embryo weight from 2.22 +/- 0.10 to 267.5 +/- 9.7 mg. Dorsal aortic blood flow normalized for embryo and extraembryonic weight remained relatively constant (Y = 2.13 + 0.02X, r = 0.23, SEE = 0.03). Stroke volume incre...