Xenopus has been used to study a wide array of developmental processes, benefiting from vast quantities of relatively large, externally developing eggs. Xenopus is particularly amenable to examining the cardiac system because many of the developmental processes and genes involved in cardiac specification, differentiation, and growth are conserved between Xenopus and human and have been characterized in detail. Furthermore, compared with other higher vertebrate models, Xenopus embryos can survive longer without a properly functioning heart or circulatory system, enabling investigation of later consequences of early embryological manipulations. This biology is complemented by experimental technology, such as embryonic explants to study the heart, microinjection of overexpression constructs, and, most recently, the generation of genetic mutations through gene-editing technologies. Recent investigations highlight Xenopus as a powerful experimental system for studying injury/repair and regeneration and for congenital heart disease (CHD) modeling, which reinforces why this model system remains ideal for studying heart development.

中文翻译：

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非洲爪蟾：心血管发育、再生发现和心血管心脏缺陷建模的实验途径。

非洲爪蟾已被用于研究广泛的发育过程，受益于大量相对较大的外部发育卵。非洲爪蟾特别适合检查心脏系统，因为涉及心脏规格、分化和生长的许多发育过程和基因在非洲爪蟾和人类之间是保守的，并且已被详细描述。此外，与其他高等脊椎动物模型相比，非洲爪蟾如果没有正常运作的心脏或循环系统，胚胎可以存活更长时间，从而能够研究早期胚胎操作的后期后果。这种生物学得到了实验技术的补充，例如用于研究心脏的胚胎外植体、显微注射过表达结构，以及最近通过基因编辑技术产生基因突变。最近的研究强调非洲爪蟾是研究损伤/修复和再生以及先天性心脏病 (CHD) 建模的强大实验系统，这强化了为什么该模型系统仍然是研究心脏发育的理想选择。