Abstract
Quiescent heart tubes in intact eight-somite chick embryos were mechanically stretched by injecting excess fluid into the heart lumen. The stretch stimuli sometimes caused precocious focal twitches in the ventricular portion of the primitive heart tube. The contractile response to mechanical stretch was confirmed by recording electrograms before, during, and after the pressure pulse injections. The results prompt us to suggest that the precise timing of the initial heartbeats in the intact embryo may involve an increase in the intraluminal fluid volume and pressure stretching the heart tube wall.
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