A Combined Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Geometric Morphometrics Methods Approach to Quantifying Hemodynamic and Anatomical Features of Embryonic Chick Heart Anatomies Reconstructed from Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging

ABSTRACT Although congenital heart defects occur in approximately 1% of newborns in the US annually, their pathogenesis remains largely unknown. Less than a third of congenital heart defects are traced a known genetic or environmental cause. It has been demonstrated that hemodynamic forces such as wall shear stress are critical for heart development. However, measuring these hemodynamic factors in vivo is infeasible due to physical limitations, such as the small size and constant motion of the embryonic heart. An alternative approach is to recapitulate the hemodynamic environment by simulating blood flow and calculating the resulting hemodynamic forces through computational fluid dynamics modeling. We use computational fluid dynamics modeling to quantify hemodynamics in a cohort of cell-accurate embryonic chick heart anatomies reconstructed using light sheet fluorescent microscopy. Additionally, we perform a quantitative analysis on geometric features using geometric morphometric methods. Together, the high-resolution but accessible imaging technique of light sheet fluorescence microscopy to reconstruct the anatomies paired with computational fluid dynamics modeling and geometric morphometrics methods produces a fast and accessible pipeline for quantitative hemodynamic and anatomical analysis in embryonic heart development.