Carbon monoxide affects early cardiac development in an avian model.

Introduction: Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic gas that can be lethal in large doses and may also cause physiological damage in lower doses. Epidemiological studies suggest that CO in lower doses over time may impact on embryo development, in particular cardiac development, however other studies have not observed this association.

Methods: Here, we exposed chick embryos in ovo to CO at three different concentrations (3, 9, 18 ppm) plus air control (4 protocols in total) for the first 9 days of development, at which point we assessed egg and embryo weight, ankle length, developmental stage, heart weight, ventricular wall thickness, ventricular-septal thickness and atrial wall thickness.

Results: We found that heart weight was reduced for the low and moderate exposures compared to air, that atrial wall and ventricular wall thickness was increased for the moderate and high exposures compared to air and that ventricular septal thickness was increased for low, moderate and high exposures compared to air. Ventricular wall thickness was also significantly positively correlated with absolute CO exposures across all protocols.

Conclusions: This intervention study thus suggests that CO even at very low levels may have a significant impact on cardiac development.