Using zebrafish as the model organism to understand organ regeneration

Abstract

The limited regenerative capacity of several organs, such as central nervous system (CNS), heart and limb in mammals makes related major diseases quite difficult to recover. Therefore, dissection of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying organ regeneration is of great scientific and clinical interests. Tremendous progression has already been made after extensive investigations using several model organisms for decades. Unfortunately, distance to the final achievement of the goal still remains. Recently, zebrafish became a popular model organism for the deep understanding of regeneration based on its powerful regenerative capacity, in particular the organs that are limitedly regenerated in mammals. Additionally, zebrafish are endowed with other advantages good for the study of organ regeneration. This review summarizes the recent progress in the study of zebrafish organ regeneration, in particular regeneration of fin, heart, CNS, and liver as the representatives. We also discuss reasons of the reduced regenerative capacity in higher vertebrate, the roles of inflammation during regeneration, and the difference between organogenesis and regeneration. organ regeneration, zebrafish, fin, heart, liver, CNS Citation:Shi WC, Fang ZB, Li L, Luo LF. Using zebrafish as the model organism to understand organ regeneration.

Beyond organoids: In vitro vasculogenesis and angiogenesis using cells from mammals and zebrafish

“…The zebrafish possesses remarkable regenerative capacity in several organs (including the caudal fin and heart [200,201]) which makes it a useful model for studying regeneration [202]. The regeneration of organs also involves the regeneration of blood vessels, and therefore the regenerative capacity of zebrafish is also important for vascular regeneration studies [28].…”

The scales and tales of myelination: using zebrafish and mouse to study myelinating glia

“…heart and fin), represent an excellent vertebrate model organism for studying regeneration (Shi et al 2015). Recently, several groups have taken advantage of the elevated regenerative capacity of zebrafish to understand repair after injury in the nervous system (McCurley et al, 2010; Ma et al 2012; Moore et al, 2012; Münzel et al, 2012; Chung et al 2013).…”

Stem Cell Therapy: Curcumin Does the Trick

“…The regeneration processes vary in different species and among the tissues in the same species (Tal, Franzosa, & Tanguay, 2010). Hence, the field of regenerative medicine by means of stem cell therapy has gained increasing momentum to restore the functionality of damaged organs at point-of-care settings (Shi, Fang, Li, & Luo, 2015). This is possible due to the unique properties of stem cells and their ability to differentiate into a broad range of cell types (Facchin et al, 2018).…”