As an important vertebrate model organism, zebrafish are typically studied at the embryonic stage to take advantage of their properties of transparency and rapid development. However, more and more studies require assays to be done on adults. Consequently, a good anesthetic is needed to sedate and immobilize the adult zebrafish during experimental manipulation. To date, MS-222 (tricaine methanesulfonate) is the only Food and Drug Administration approved anesthetic for aquaculture and is widely used by the zebrafish research community. Nevertheless, in adult zebrafish, MS-222 reduces heart rate and causes high mortality under long-term sedation. Consequently, adult zebrafish have limited research applications. In this study, we present a new anesthetic formula for the adult zebrafish that results in minimal side effects on its physiology under prolonged sedation. The combined use of MS-222 with isoflurane effectively extended the time of anesthesia, and the zebrafish recovered faster than when anesthetized with the traditional MS-222. Moreover, MS-222 + isoflurane did not cause reduction of heart rates, which enabled long-term electrocardiogram recording and microscopic observation on the adult zebrafish. Taken together, the new MS-222 + isoflurane formula will facilitate general applications of adult zebrafish in time-consuming experiments with minimal side effects on the model organism's overall physiology.

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BackgroundCardiovascular disease is the chief cause of death in Taiwan and many countries, of which myocardial infarction (MI) is the most serious condition. Hyperlipidemia appears to be a significant cause of myocardial infarction, because it causes atherosclerosis directly. In recent years, copy number variation (CNV) has been analyzed in genomewide association studies of complex diseases. In this study, CNV was analyzed in blood samples and SNP arrays from 31 myocardial infarction patients with hyperlipidemia.ResultsWe identified seven CNV regions that were associated significantly with hyperlipidemia and myocardial infarction in our patients through multistage analysis (P<0.001), at 1p21.3, 1q31.2 (CDC73), 1q42.2 (DISC1), 3p21.31 (CDCP1), 10q11.21 (RET) 12p12.3 (PIK3C2G) and 16q23.3 (CDH13), respectively. In particular, the CNV region at 10q11.21 was examined by quantitative real-time PCR, the results of which were consistent with microarray findings.ConclusionsOur preliminary results constitute an alternative method of evaluating the relationship between CNV regions and cardiovascular disease. These susceptibility CNV regions may be used as biomarkers for early-stage diagnosis of hyperlipidemia and myocardial infarction, rendering them valuable for further research and discussion.

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Graphene quantum dots (GQDs), nanomaterials derived from graphene and carbon dots, are highly stable, soluble, and have exceptional optical properties. Further, they have low toxicity and are excellent vehicles for carrying drugs or fluorescein dyes. Specific forms of GQDs can induce apoptosis and could be used to treat cancers. In this study, three forms of GQDs (GQD (nitrogen:carbon = 1:3), ortho-GQD, and meta-GQD) were screened and tested for their potential to inhibit breast cancer cell (MCF-7, BT-474, MDA-MB-231, and T-47D) growth. All three GQDs decreased cell viability after 72 h of treatment and specifically affected breast cancer cell proliferation. An assay for the expression of apoptotic proteins revealed that p21 and p27 were up-regulated (1.41-fold and 4.75-fold) after treatment. In particular, ortho-GQD-treated cells showed G2/M phase arrest. The GQDs specifically induced apoptosis in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cell lines. These results indicate that these GQDs induce apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest in specific breast cancer subtypes and could potentially be used for treating breast cancers.