CHICK EMBRYO AS AN EXPERIMENTAL OBJECT FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT OF CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

Currently, congenital diseases of the cardiovascular system (CVS) including congenital heart defects, make a considerable contribution to children's morbidity and mortality worldwide. In this regard, experiments that study development of cardiovascular diseases in the early stages of the ontogenesis seem to be a promising source of information providing theoretical basis for the knowledge of congenital cardiovascular pathology. The article presents review of literature data concerning use of chick embryos for experimental study of physiology and pathology of de-velopment of cardiovascular system. Due to the availability, large size in comparison with other representatives of Aves, simplicity of use in manipulations and in culturing, chick embryos are often used as a model for description of development of the heart and of its vascularization. Expe-rimental works with chick embryos laid the basis for the knowledge of formation of the myocar-dium, epicardium, endocardium, coronary vasculature, heart chambers and the main vessels in the process of embryogenesis. A high conservatism of many key mechanisms of the early ontogenesis makes it possible to extrapolate the data obtained in such experiments, to humans. Development of the novel biomedical technologies, first of all, of intravital imaging, permitted to expand the range of possible interventions into the CVS of the chick embryo. Taking into account the men-tioned advantages and improvements of the methods, experimental models based on chicken em-bryos do not lose relevance up to this day.