Nowadays thanks to the transgenic techniques, the mouse has become the major animal model used for studying congenital cardiac anomalies and DNA defects induced by chemical substances.(34)
C57BL/6 is the most widely used strain produced by a minimum of twenty generations of brother-sister mating.(35) Its genome has been sequenced and they are known as good breeders.(36) Regarding the anatomy of the mouse heart, the thymus gland is well developed and presented anterior to the heart.(37) The heart is surrounded by pericardial membrane which consists of visceral and parietal portions.(37)
The heart is formed of two ventricles and two atria.(37) Each ventricle is cone shaped, with thick wall, pointed apex and broad base.(37) The two ventricles
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The atria are small, thin walled chamber presents anterior to the base of each ventricle.(37) Unlike the human heart where four pulmonary veins open into the left atrium to drain oxygenated blood from the lungs, in the mouse heart, the pulmonary veins form a pulmonary confluence and open into the left atrium by a solitary …show more content…
Another difference between the two species that in the mouse heart, the left superior caval vein persist and deliver blood from the back of the head.(37) The left superior vena cava joins the right superior vena cava and drain with the inferior vena cava into the right atrium.(37)
Each of the right and left superior vena cava have five vessels draining into it, the internal thoracic, azygos, subclavian, internal jugular, and external jugular veins.(37) The inferior vena cava is a single vessel originates at the caudal end of the abdominal cavity and terminates with the right superior vena cava into the right atrium.(37) Hepatic, renal, right gonadal, iliolumber and common iliac veins drain into the inferior vena cava.(37)
The conduction system in the mouse heart is also different from that of a man heart.(37) In the mouse heart, the sinoatrial node is located above the junction between the left and right superior vena cava rather than the atrium itself as in the man heart.(37)
The AV node and the bundle of His in the mouse heart is similar to that present in the man heart, while the Purkinje fibers are less developed suggesting that the impulse conduction system pass directly within the