Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T05:23:55.253Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The left-sided aortic arch in humans, viewed as the end-result of natural selection during vertebrate evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2011

Alexander J. Muster ,
Rachid F. Idriss  and
Carl L. Backer
Alexander J. Muster*
Affiliation:
Children's Memorial Hospital, Divisions of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Il, USA
Rachid F. Idriss
Affiliation:
Children's Memorial Hospital, Divisions of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Il, USA
Carl L. Backer
Affiliation:
Children's Memorial Hospital, Divisions of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Il, USA
*
Corresponding author: Alexander J. Muster, MD, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's Plaza, Chicago, Il, USA. Tel: 312-329-1497; Fax 312-329-1572; e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

At some point during vertebrate evolution from species dwelling in water to living on land, the ancestral double or right aortic arches became single and left-sided in mammals, including humans, as the result of synchronous developments in cardiovascular and respiratory embryogenesis. Since left-sided aortic arches are unique to mammals, hemodynamics related to the placenta, specifically the requirement for a large arterial duct connecting to the descending aorta, may have led to switching from the right-sided to the left-sided arch. Additionally, development of a trilobar right lung and its bronchial tree, also unique to mammalian evolution, restricted the space above the high eparterial bronchus to a single large vessel. Consequently, mammals that mutated to the left-sided aortic arch avoided respiratory, digestive or circulatory problems that are often associated with an isolated right-sided aortic arch – something which could be considered a successful mistake. Due to natural selection, and survival of the fittest, the left-sided arch became the norm in mammals.

In congenital cardiac malformations where a large arterial duct is not mandatory in fetal life, as in Fallot's tetralogy or common arterial trunk, a right-sided aortic arch continues to occur, perhaps as an atavistic reversion to the anatomy seen in ancestral vertebrates.

Keywords

Aortic archesevolution of vertebrate cardiovascular systemcomparative anatomy of vertebrate aortic arches
Type
Developmental Hypothesis
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 111 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Bergsma, D. Aortic arch, right. In: Allan R, Liss (ed). Birth Defects Compendium, 2nd edn. New York: 1979: pp 77–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Hastreiter, AR, Cruz, IA, Cantez, T. Right sided aorta. Brit Heart J 1966; 28: 722–739CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Blake, HA, Manion, WC. Thoracic arterial arch anomalies. Circulation 1962; 26: 255–265Google ScholarPubMed
4.Lawson, R. The compatative anatomy of the circulatory system. In: Wake, (ed). Hyman's Comparative Vertebtate Anatomy, 3rd edn.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979: pp 496–500Google Scholar
5.Lawson, R. The comparative anatomy of the coelom and the digestive and respitatory systems. In: Wake, (ed). Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, 3rd edn.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979: pp 393–397Google Scholar
6.Moulaert, AJMG. Ventricular septal defect and anomalies of the aortic arch. (Proefschrift), Drukkerij ‘Luctor Et Emergo’, Leiden 1974: pp 7–10Google Scholar
7.Patterson, DF. Canine congenital heart disease: epidemiology and ethiological hypotheses. J Small Anim Pract 1971; 12: 263–287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Lawson, R. The comparative anatomy of the circulatory system. In: Wake, (ed.). Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, 3rd edn.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979: pp 463–470Google Scholar
9.Kent, GC, Miller, L. Comparative anatomy of the vertebrates. Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1996: pp 322–330Google Scholar
10.Lawson, R. Comparative anatomy of the circulatory system. In: Wake, (ed.). Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, 3rd edn.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979: pp 488–493Google Scholar
11.Larsen, JL. Essentials of Human Embryology, 2nd edn.New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998: pp 21–28Google Scholar
12.Larsen, JL. Essentials of Human Embryology, 2nd edn.New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998: pp 81–95Google Scholar
13.Van Mierop, LHS, Kutsche, LM. Interruption of the aortic arch and coarctation of the aorta: Pathogenetic relations. Am J Cardiol 1984; 54: 829–834CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14.Liechty, JD, Shields, TWAnson, BJ. Variations pertaining to the aortic arches and their branches. Quart Bull Northw Univ Med Sch 1957; 41: 136Google Scholar
15.Anson, BJ. The aortic arch and its branches. In: Luisada, AA (ed.). Development and Structure of Cardiovascular System. New York: McGraw and Hill, 1961: p 119Google Scholar
16.Nozaki, S, Maki, T, Sekiya, S (in Japanese), cited by Kasai, T. In: Topographic changes of the surrounding structures of the arch of the aorta in various anomalies of aorta in man. Acta Anat Nippon 1962; 37: 275Google Scholar
17.Hoffman, JIE. Incidence of congenital heart disease: II: Prenatal incidence. Pediatr Cardiol 1995; 16: 155–165Google Scholar
18.Gutgesell, HP In: The science and practice of pediatric cardiology. Garson, A, Bricker, JT, McNamara, DG (eds). Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1990; Vol. 2: pp 1280–1286Google Scholar
19.Swan, H, Cuthbert, JO, Pool, PE, Vogel, JHK, Blount, GS. Absent left pulmonary artery and right-sided patent ductus arteriosus. Archives Surg 1963; 87: 196–205CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Dodge-Khatami, A, Backer, CL, Dunham, ME, Mavroudis, C. Right aortic arch, right ligamentum, absent left pulmonary-artery: a rare vascular ring. Ann Thorac Surg 1999; 67: 1472–1474CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21.Pierpoint, EM, Zollikofer, CL, Moller, JH, Edwards, JE. Interruption of the aortic arch with right descending aorta. Pediatr Cardiol 1982; 2: 153–159CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Barry, A. The aortic arch derivatives in the human adult. Anat Rec 1951; 111:221–238CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.Haughton, VM, Fellows, KE, Rosenbaum, AE. The cervical aortic arches. Radiology 1975; 114: 675–681CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24.Stewart, JR, Kinkaid, OW, Titus, JL. Right aortic arch: plain film diagnosis and significance. Am J Rentgenol Radium Ther Nucl Med 1966; 97: 377CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Kommerell, B. Verlagerung des oesophagus durch eine abnorm verlaufenden arteria subclavia dextra (Arteria lusoria). Fortschr Geb Roentgenstrahlen 1936; 54: 590–595Google Scholar