The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a useful animal model system for
studying genetics,
cardiovascular development, and cardiotoxicity. Recently,
extensive chemical and drug toxicity screening have been conducted
using zebrafish embryos. Relevance and predictability of drug
response between zebrafish and humans have been studied, and it has
been found that zebrafish show a high percentage of predictability
(78% and 70%) of drug response. Both the mammalian and zebrafish
heart share the development of specialized chambers, valves to
ensure directionality, outflow tracts to an intricate vasculature,
specialized endothelial cells to drive a high-pressure system, and
an electrical system to regulate the rhythm. Besides, cardiac
performance in adult zebrafish can be detected by new noninvasive
methods. It can be assessed by advancing conventional
echocardiography with speckle-tracking analyses and changes in
cardiac performance, and allows highly sensitive assessment of
regional myocardial motion and deformation in high spatio-temporal
resolution.
Create new ticket