Experimental study of the formation of the bulboventricular loop in the chick

The formation of the normal bulboventricular loop (convex to the right) and the inverted loop (convex to the left) produced by the Lepori technique in chick embryos was studied. The development of the loops was recorded by means of diagrams, photographs and microscopic time-lapse photography. Electron-microscope studies were also made. The normal loop was studied by means of labelling and removal experiments on the heart tube. The results demonstrated that the fusion of both cardiac primordia is made in stage 9 — in the mid-line of the embryo and that the first asymmetry of the heart tube appears in stage 10. The truncus region developed in situ directed towards the right after the fusion of both cardiac primordia, and in this region the electron-microscope study demonstrated a gradient of caudo-cephalic differentiation. In stage 10 the left caudal groove is the prospective interventricular groove, but the right caudal groove is not the right atrioventricular groove as had been stated by others. The asymmetric incorporation of both primordia begins in stage 11 —, when the curvature of the loop is already developing. In the removal experiments it was evident that the different portions of the cardiac tube in situ are orientated in space independently of the whole of the loop. The formation of the experimentally inverted loop is a mirror-image of the normal loop and appears to be originated through mechanic traction of the cardiac tube by the left splachnopleure and not by a faster displacement of the right cardiac primordia.