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2023 2021

2022/12/7
Published "Zebrafish Models for Skeletal Muscle Senescence: Lessons from Cell Cultures and Rodents Models"

We have published a review article on the possibility of using zebrafish as a model for sarcopenia in a Special Issue "Zebrafish -based Drug Discovery" of Molecules.

In cell cultures and rodents, several models have been reported that reflect the skeletal muscle aging phenotype or parts of it, including the accelerated aging models. Although there are fewer models of skeletal muscle aging in zebrafish than in mice, various models have been reported in recent years with the development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology, and further advancements in the field using zebrafish models are expected in the future.

2022/9/8
Best Poster Award "Medicinal bath safety evaluation using zebrafish embryos" in the 75th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Hot Spring Sciences.

Addition of various natural products or extracts to hot springs or bath water so that the fragrance may have a relaxing effect or to beautify the skin is becoming widely common. However, the functionality and safety of these so-called "medicinal baths" are mostly based on empirical evidence and have been scientifically proven only for a few products. In this study, as part of the development of new medicinal baths for use in an upcoming resort complex in Mie Prefecture, we conducted a biological safety evaluation, using zebrafish embryos.

2022/6/1
Published "Application of omics approaches for assessing microplastic and nanoplastic toxicity in fish and seafood species"

Our review article about microplastic and nanoplastic toxicity in fish and seafood species has been published in TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry.

Highlights
•Review of the state-of-the-art on use of omics to study MP/NP toxicity on fish and seafood species.
•Multi-omics to study MP/NP toxicity in seafood has increased in recent years.
•Studies involving proteomics, microbiomics, metabolomics are needed.
•Attention needs to be given for development of MP/NP toxicity signature of seafood species.

2022/5/1
Published "Combined exposure to nanoplastics and metal oxide nanoparticles inhibits efflux pumps and causes oxidative stress in zebrafish embryos".

Highlights
• Nanoplastic (NP) increased the accumulation of aluminium and cerium by inhibiting efflux pump.
• NP caused alteration in oxidative stress responses and toxicity of nAl2O3 and nCeO2.
• Increased IBRv2 values were observed in NP + nAl2O3 compared to nAl2O3 alone exposure.
• NP + nCeO2 showed lower IBRv2 values when compared to nCeO2 alone exposure.
• DNA damage and repair-associated gene showed significant differences between groups.

2022/4/5
Our special issue is published in Frontiers e-book "Zebrafish Models for Human Diseases studies"

Thank you again for all articles published in the Research Topic Zebrafish Models for Human Disease Studies.
We are pleased to tell you that a Frontiers e-book, comprising all the articles featured in your Research Topic, has been compiled and is now available online on our website, here.

Alternatively, you can also access the e-book via the Research Topic homepage, where all articles are also individually available.

2022/3/16
Closing remark: Special issue "Zebrafish Models for Human Disease Studies".

Zebrafish are an attractive vertebrate model organism for biomedical discovery (Tavares and Santos Lopes, 2013). The advantages of using zebrafish are well known and include cost-effectiveness, high fecundity, short generation time, external development, transparency of embryonic stages, and ease of genome manipulation. These features have provided investigators with a vertebrate model with unprecedented potential for the live imaging of biological processes (Okuda and Hogan, 2020) and genetic and drug screenings (Shah et al., 2015; Lam and Peterson, 2019).
The current research topic in Frontiers of Cell and Developmental Biology includes 35 original and review articles from 224 authors, containing a wide range of examples on how zebrafish contribute as an animal model to our understanding of various human diseases. The collection encompasses different areas of investigation: as further detailed by the sections below.

2022/2/11
Published "Zebrafish obesogenic test identifies anti-adipogenic fraction in Moringa oreifera leaf extracts".

The zebrafish obesogenic test (ZOT) is a powerful tool for identifying anti-adipogenic compounds for in vivo screening. In our previous study, we found that Moringa oleifera (MO) leaf powder suppressed the accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in ZOT. MO demonstrates a wide range of pharmacological effects; however, little is known about its functional constituents. To identify the anti-adipogenic components of MO leaves, we prepared extracts using different extraction methods and tested the obtained extracts and fractions using ZOT. We found that the dichloromethane extract and its hexane:EtOAc = 8:2 fraction reduced VAT accumulation in young zebrafish fed a high-fat diet. We also performed gene expression analysis in the zebrafish VAT and found that CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein delta (associated with early stages of adipogenesis) gene expression was downregulated after fraction 2 administration. We identified a new MO fraction that suppressed VAT accumulation by inhibiting early adipogenesis using the ZOT. Phenotype-driven zebrafish screening is a reasonable strategy for identifying bioactive components in natural products.

2022/2/9
Mie University R Navi
Molecular mechanism of zebrafish embryo to deep ultraviolet radiation (UVC)-induced damage

Significance:
1. The toxicity and safety of UVC irradiation in living organisms were investigated.
2. Zebrafish embryos at the early developmental stage survived after 4.5 mJ/cm2 of UVC irradiation.
3. Zebrafish embryos respond quickly to UVC-induced stress via the activated p53 signaling pathway to facilitate DNA repair and accelerate damaged cell death, and then shift to the activation of the STAT signaling pathway to repair the DNA damage and avoid apoptosis of the newly proliferated cells in the recovery period.
4. This study provided a piece of scientific evidence for evaluating the safety of using UVC on humans for inactivating coronaviruses.

2022/2/8
Press release "Elucidation of the mechanism of biological defense by deep ultraviolet LED irradiation using zebrafish".

We used early zebrafish embryos to determine the safe irradiance dose by direct irradiation with deep ultraviolet LED (UVC-LED; 278nm) to elucidate the molecular mechanism of repairing UV-induced DNA damage.
The results of this research were published online in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (Elsevier, impact factor 6.291) on January 18, 2022.

2022/1/20
Published "Transcriptome Analysis of Molecular Response to UVC Irradiation in Zebrafish Embryos" in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.

Highlights
• The toxicity and safety of UVC irradiation in living organisms were investigated.
• Zebrafish embryos at the early developmental stage (5–6 h post-fertilization) survived after 4.5 mJ/cm2 of UVC irradiation.
• Zebrafish embryos respond quickly to UVC-induced stress via activated p53 signaling pathway.
• Zebrafish embryos showed activated STAT signaling pathway after three days of recovery from UVC irradiation.

2022/1/18
Published "The therapeutic effects of lacto-fermented Cauliflower fungus on hepatic steatosis" in The Journal of Japan Mibyou Association.

Japanese version for our previous work "Lacto-fermented Cauliflower fungus (Sparassis crispa) ameliorates hepatic steatosis by activating beta-oxidation in a diet-induced obese zebrafish." with some updated data.

2022/1/12
Start Special Issue "Zebrafish-Based Drug Discovery" in Molecules.

Dear Colleagues,

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is contributing to speeding up drug discovery in a range of areas, including phenotype-based screening using disease models (so-called “zebrafish screening”), target molecule discovery, validation of the results of cell studies before clinical trials, and toxicological evaluation. As a result, many drug candidates, first-in-class drugs, and several drugs for off-label use have been discovered using zebrafish over the past 10 years. This Special Issue provides a forum to discuss zebrafish-based drug discovery from broader perspectives, including the creation of human disease models, technologies harnessing these as model organisms, and their use for drug or drug candidate identification. Review articles by experts in the field are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Yasuhito Shimada
Guest Editor

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