Congenital familial bilateral branchial tracts: A rare case

by Julia Vent, MD, PhD, Candace G. Grier, MD, Donald A. Leopold, MD, and Barbara B. Heywood, MD | Tuesday, January 01, 2008

IntroductionDuring fetal development, structures between the head and heart arise from the branchial apparatus. Of the six branchial arches in humans, the fifth and sixth are rudimentary.1 The development of many structures in the head and neck is immediately related to either the branchial arches or the pharyngeal pouches.2 The makeup of these embryologic structures is transient, as they undergo remodeling to the point that their original forms are essentially unrecognizable in adults.Members of the Antennapedia class of homeobox genes, known as Hox genes, are believed to be pivotal in regulating vertebrate craniofacial development and controlling morphogenesis and the growth of the proximal-distal axis.3,4 In 1997, Vieille-Grosjean et al showed for the first time that at 4 weeks of development, human branchial arches express the paralogous groups using the mouse homologues of HOXB1, HOXA2, HOXB2, HOXA3, HOXB3, HOXD3, HOXB4, and HOXC4 as probes for in situ hybridization.4 These .../continued/

ENT Journal provides full text articles to our registered members, please log in below or sign up for a FREE membership to view the full content.
Member Login	Register as a Member