Dynamics of repair and regeneration of adult zebrafish respiratory gill tissue after cryoinjury.

Abstract

The study of respiratory tissue damage and repair is critical to understand not only the consequences of respiratory tissue exposure to infectious agents, irritants and toxic chemicals, but also to comprehend the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory lung diseases. To gain further insights into these processes, we developed a gill cryoinjury model in the adult zebrafish. Time course analysis showed that cryoinjury of the gills triggered an inflammatory response, extensive cell death and collagen deposition at the site of injury. However, the inflammation was rapidly resolved, collagen accumulation dissipated and by 3 weeks after injury the affected gill tissue had begun to regenerate. RNA seq analysis of cryoinjured gills, combined with a comparison of zebrafish heart cryoinjury and caudal fin resection datasets, highlighted the differences and similarities of the transcriptional programmes deployed in response to injury in these three zebrafish models. Comparative RNA seq analysis of cryoinjured zebrafish gills with mouse pulmonary fibrosis datasets also identified target genes, including the understudied FIBIN, as differentially expressed in the two species. Further mining, including of human datasets, suggests that FIBIN may contribute to the successful resolution of tissue damage without fibrosis.

Comparative Study in Zebrafish and Medaka Unravels the Mechanisms of Tissue Regeneration

“…Cryoinjury is popular in heart regeneration studies in both zebrafish (Gonzalez-Rosa et al, 2011;Schnabel et al, 2011;Dyck et al, 2020) and medaka (Lai et al, 2017) as it mimics the myocardial infarction in mammals better than resection model (Chablais et al, 2011;Darehzereshki et al, 2015). This technique can also be applied to external organs, such as the fin (Chassot et al, 2016) and gills (Ramel et al, 2021). However, cauterization is technically challenging and less reproducible compared to resection.…”

Validation of Non-lethal Biopsy Techniques in Freshwater Fish

“…An additional future direction for evaluation of biopsy would be an extension of the monitoring period in order to assess biopsy through all stages of healing. Although previous research (Zhao et al 2014;McCormick 1993) noted that cuts from gill biopsies were found to be fully healed within 7 days of biopsy, the time required to regenerate tissue lost may exceed 40 days (as identified in the model species Danio rerio) (Ramel et al 2021). Furthermore, muscle biopsies have been noted to fully healed in Smallmouth Bass within two months of biopsy (Ackerson et al 2014).…”