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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: ajmuster@21stcentury.net
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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

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