The Zebrafish Model: Use in Studying Cellular Mechanisms for a Spectrum of Clinical Disease Entities

Abstract

Although the zebrafish model provides an important platform for the study of developmental biology, recent work with the zebrafish model has extended its application to a wide variety of experimental studies relevant to human disease. Currently, the zebrafish model is used for the study of human genetic disease, caveolin-associated muscle disease, homeostasis, kidney development and disease, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, oxidative stress, caloric restriction, insulin-like pathways, angiogenesis, neurological diseases, liver disease, hemophilia, bacterial pathogenesis, apoptosis, osteoporosis, immunological studies, germ cell study, Bardet-Biedl syndrome gene (BBS11), Alzheimer's disease, virology studies and vaccine development. Here we describe the essential use of the zebrafish model that applies to several clinical diseases. With increased understanding of the cellular mechanisms responsible for disease, we can use knowledge gained from the zebrafish model for the development of therapeutics.

Expression and distribution of S100 protein in the nervous system of the adult zebrafish (Danio rerio)

“…This small teleost is currently used as a model for developmental studies but also to investigate the molecular basis of some human diseases (Hsu et al, 2007;Kari et al, 2007;Lieschke and Currie, 2007). The distribution of a large number of proteins in the nervous system of the zebrafish is rather well known (www.zfin.org), but surprisingly there is no information about the expression and localization of S100 protein, one protein well known in the nervous system of the higher vertebrates (Gonzalez-Martinez et al, 2003;Heizmann, 1999) and which is philogenetically well preserved (Donato, 2003;Marenholz et al, 2004).…”

“…Zebrafish have been used extensively in a variety of medical and scientific disciplines including cardiology, neurology, ophatalmology, and environmental toxicology (Hsu et al, 2007;Kari et al, 2007;Lieschke and Currie, 2007). However, the majority of these studies have explored developmental aspects (Langenau and Zon, 2005).…”

Optimization of Volumetric Computed Tomography for Skeletal Analysis of Model Genetic Organisms

“…Danio rerio, the teleost zebrafish native to China, has emerged as an important genetic model organism for developmental biology (Dawid, 2004) and human disease (Hsu et al, 2007). Large scale mutagenic screens have been performed (Driever et al, 1996;Geisler et al, 2007) and many stable, heritable, germline mutations have been introduced into inbred colonies for use in embryonic and postembryonic studies.…”

A Manual Small Molecule Screen Approaching High-throughput Using Zebrafish Embryos

“…Strikingly, 70% of human genes have a zebrafish orthologue 4 . Due to this similarity, zebrafish have been a highly relevant experimental system for studying the mechanisms of vertebrate development and physiology, and have been employed to recapitulate a multitude of human diseases [5][6][7] . These reasons, among others, have made the zebrafish an ideal candidate for continuing genetic interrogations and has resulted in a steadily increasing appreciation for the utility of zebrafish in biomedical research 6,7 .…”