Organism-Level Tumor Models in Zebrafish Danio rerio

Abstract

Development and implementation of adequate organism-level models is one of the key elements in biomedical research that focuses on experimental oncology. Over the last decade, studies using Zebrafish (Danio rerio) have gained in popularity in this area of research. This review describes the various approaches that have been used in developing highly effective models for oncological (clinical term, better cancer or tumor) studies based on D. rerio. Priority is given to transplantation models of cancer and their application to optically transparent D. rerio lines, including clonal ones, and utilization tumors of various origins bearing fluorescent labels. The combination of tumor transplantation at organism-level models in transparent clonal D. rerio lines with fluorescent microscopy, FACS-fractionation of tumor cell subsets, and transcription analysis can result in one of the most promising research approaches in providing new information on tumor formation and growth.

Fishing for neuroendocrine tumors

“…To overcome transplant rejection in adult zebrafish without immune suppression, it is possible to perform allograft between clonal homozygous zebrafish. This procedure allows the transfer of tumor tissues from one donor fish to another syngeneic fish belonging to the same line (Mizgireuv & Revskoy 2006, Mizgirev et al 2018. In this way it is possible to study tumor progression and tumor microenvironment over time in fish with fully functional immune system, but only between clonal fish.…”