An Overview of Methods for Cardiac Rhythm Detection in Zebrafish

Abstract

The heart is the most important muscular organ of the cardiovascular system, which pumps blood and circulates, supplying oxygen and nutrients to peripheral tissues. Zebrafish have been widely explored in cardiotoxicity research. For example, the zebrafish embryo has been used as a human heart model due to its body transparency, surviving several days without circulation, and facilitating mutant identification to recapitulate human diseases. On the other hand, adult zebrafish can exhibit the amazing regenerative heart muscle capacity, while adult mammalian hearts lack this potential. This review paper offers a brief description of the major methodologies used to detect zebrafish cardiac rhythm at both embryonic and adult stages. The dynamic pixel change method was mostly performed for the embryonic stage. Other techniques, such as kymography, laser confocal microscopy, artificial intelligence, and electrocardiography (ECG) have also been applied to study heartbeat in zebrafish embryos. Nevertheless, ECG is widely used for heartbeat detection in adult zebrafish since ECG waveforms’ similarity between zebrafish and humans is prominent. High-frequency ultrasound imaging (echocardiography) and modern electronic sensor tag also have been proposed. Despite the fact that each method has its benefits and limitations, it is proved that zebrafish have become a promising animal model for human cardiovascular disease, drug pharmaceutical, and toxicological research. Using those tools, we conclude that zebrafish behaviors as an excellent small animal model to perform real-time monitoring for the developmental heart process with transparent body appearance, to conduct the in vivo cardiovascular performance and gene function assays, as well as to perform high-throughput/high content drug screening.

New Enclosure for in vivo Medical Imaging of Zebrafish With Vital Signs Monitoring

“…The obtained heart rate values compare favorably to the values found in the literature (Pereira et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2017;Santoso et al, 2020), validating our results. Nevertheless, some other discrepancies in the literature can be pointed out (Pereira et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2017;Santoso et al, 2020).…”

Zebrafish Heart Failure Models

“…Zebrafish are prone to changes in heart rate and development of atrioventricular conduction block ( Milan et al, 2003 ; Paavola et al, 2013 ; Zhu et al, 2014 ). Various methods to investigate cardiac rhythm and conductance in embryonic and adult zebrafish have been established ( Santoso et al, 2020 ). Electrocardiogram (ECG) remains the gold standard in adult zebrafish ( Milan et al, 2006 ).…”

Measurement of Multiple Cardiac Performance Endpoints in Daphnia and Zebrafish by Kymograph

“…Although several methods have been established for heart rate analysis in aquatic animals, they suffer from some drawbacks like limited usage, expensive instrument setting, or complicated operational procedures [11,19,37] (summarized in Table 1). The most updated review on analyzing the pros and cons of current cardiac rhythm detection methods in zebrafish can be found in our recent review article [38]. Sampurna et al [11] developed a simple and cost-effective ImageJ-based method to calculate cardiac rhythm in zebrafish.…”