Nephrotoxin Microinjection in Zebrafish to Model Acute Kidney Injury

Abstract

The kidneys are susceptible to harm from exposure to chemicals they filter from the bloodstream. This can lead to organ injury associated with a rapid decline in renal function and development of the clinical syndrome known as acute kidney injury (AKI). Pharmacological agents used to treat medical circumstances ranging from bacterial infection to cancer, when administered individually or in combination with other drugs, can initiate AKI. Zebrafish are a useful animal model to study the chemical effects on renal function in vivo, as they form an embryonic kidney comprised of nephron functional units that are conserved with higher vertebrates, including humans. Further, zebrafish can be utilized to perform genetic and chemical screens, which provide opportunities to elucidate the cellular and molecular facets of AKI and develop therapeutic strategies such as the identification of nephroprotective molecules. Here, we demonstrate how microinjection into the zebrafish embryo can be utilized as a paradigm for nephrotoxin studies.

High-throughput genetic manipulation of multicellular organisms using a machine-vision guided embryonic microinjection robot

“…Zebrafish parent clutches and their embryos were kept at 28 °C in embryo media (EM) ( Westerfield 2000 ). Once collected, zebrafish embryos were randomly distributed across a 9 cm diameter agar plate, which can be made using any standard zebrafish transplantation mold ( McKee and Wingert 2016 ). Growing fish post-injection was done in the University of Minnesota Zebrafish Core Facility.…”