Zebrafish as a Model Vertebrate for Investigating Chemical Toxicity

Abstract

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been a prominent model vertebrate in a variety of biological disciplines. Substantial information gathered from developmental and genetic research, together with near-completion of the zebrafish genome project, has placed zebrafish in an attractive position for use as a toxicological model. Although still in its infancy, there is a clear potential for zebrafish to provide valuable new insights into chemical toxicity, drug discovery, and human disease using recent advances in forward and reverse genetic techniques coupled with large-scale, high-throughput screening. Here we present an overview of the rapidly increasing use of zebrafish in toxicology. Advantages of the zebrafish both in identifying endpoints of toxicity and in elucidating mechanisms of toxicity are highlighted.

Photobiological effects of UVA and UVB light in zebrafish embryos: Evidence for a competent photorepair system

“…Over the past decade, these attributes have extended the use of this model fish to a wide variety of fields in biomedical research, including functional genomics, environmental and high-throughput toxicology screening [3,4] and specific human diseases [5]. Zebrafish embryos and juveniles are particularly useful for imaging and photoactivation studies, because they do not require in utero development, can be wholemounted, and are optically transparent, allowing visualization of specific cells, tissues, and organs (reviewed by [6]).…”

Assembling models of embryo development: Image analysis and the construction of digital atlases

“…In addition, its closer phylogenetic position to human makes it a valuable model for toxicology and pharmacology studies (Hill et al, 2005;Yang et al, 2009). Anatomy and gene expression atlases for the zebrafish brain or whole organism at different developmental stages are underway (Castro et al, 2009;Ullmann et al, 2010;Potikanond and Verbeek, 2011;Rittscheretal., 2011).…”

G 2 /M cell cycle arrest on HT-29 cancer cells and toxicity assessment of triphenylphosphanegold(I) carbonimidothioates, Ph 3 PAu[SC(OR) = NPh], R = Me, Et, and iPr, during zebrafish development

“…Recent research has shown that most of the genes found in humans have at least one zebrafish orthologue [19]. The above ensures zebrafish as being highly useful for the study of complex biological processes such as cell 6 senescence and apoptosis, aging, cardiovascular system development, and drug toxicity response [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. There are a few special characteristics of zebrafish that are worth highlighting.…”

“…There are a few special characteristics of zebrafish that are worth highlighting. In particular, the transparency of zebrafish embryos is of great advantage as this allows real time assessment of organogenesis and phenotypic changes during both drug and toxicity trials [20]. Zebrafish embryos can absorb drugs ex vivo through their egg membrane or skin [21] thereby adding to their utility for drug evaluation.…”