Integration of multiple imaging platforms to uncover cardiovascular defects in adult zebrafish.

AIMS: Mammalian models have been instrumental in investigating adult heart function and human disease. However, electrophysiological differences with human hearts and high costs motivate the need for non-mammalian models. The zebrafish is a well-established genetic model to study cardiovascular development and function; however, analysis of cardiovascular phenotypes in adult specimens is particularly challenging as they are opaque. METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, we optimized and combined multiple imaging techniques including echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and micro-computed tomography to identify and analyse cardiovascular phenotypes in adult zebrafish. Using alk5a/tgfbr1a mutants as a case study, we observed morphological and functional cardiovascular defects that were undetected with conventional approaches. Correlation analysis of multiple parameters revealed an association between haemodynamic defects and structural alterations of the heart, as observed clinically. CONCLUSION: We report a new, comprehensive, and sensitive platform to identify otherwise indiscernible cardiovascular phenotypes in adult zebrafish.

New insights into benzo[⍺]pyrene osteotoxicity in zebrafish.

Persistent and ubiquitous organic pollutants, such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon benzo[⍺]pyrene (BaP), represent a major threat to aquatic organisms and human health. Beside some well-documented adverse effects on the development and reproduction of aquatic organisms, BaP was recently shown to affect fish bone formation and skeletal development through mechanisms that remain poorly understood. In this work, zebrafish bone-related in vivo assays were used to evaluate the osteotoxic effects of BaP during bone development and regeneration. Acute exposure of zebrafish larvae to BaP from 3 to 6 days post-fertilization (dpf) induced a dose-dependent reduction of the opercular bone size and a depletion of osteocalcin-positive cells, indicating an effect on osteoblast maturation. Chronic exposure of zebrafish larvae to BaP from 3 to 30 dpf affected the development of the axial skeleton and increased the incidence and severity of skeletal deformities. In young adults, BaP affected the mineralization of newly formed fin rays and scales, and impaired fin ray patterning and scale shape, through mechanisms that involve an imbalanced bone remodeling. Gene expression analyses indicated that BaP induced the activation of xenobiotic and metabolic pathways, while negatively impacting extracellular matrix formation and organization. Interestingly, BaP exposure positively regulated inflammation markers in larvae and increased the recruitment of neutrophils. A direct interaction between neutrophils and bone extracellular matrix or bone forming cells was observed in vivo, suggesting a role for neutrophils in the mechanisms underlying BaP osteotoxicity. Our work provides novel data on the cellular and molecular players involved in BaP osteotoxicity and brings new insights into a possible role for neutrophils in inflammatory bone reduction.

TGF-ß Signaling Promotes Tissue Formation during Cardiac Valve Regeneration in Adult Zebrafish.

Cardiac valve disease can lead to severe cardiac dysfunction and is thus a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality. Its main treatment is valve replacement, which is currently greatly limited by the poor recellularization and tissue formation potential of the implanted valves. As we still lack suitable animal models to identify modulators of these processes, here we used adult zebrafish and found that, upon valve decellularization, they initiate a rapid regenerative program that leads to the formation of new functional valves. After injury, endothelial and kidney marrow-derived cells undergo cell cycle re-entry and differentiate into new extracellular matrix-secreting valve cells. The TGF-ß signaling pathway promotes the regenerative process by enhancing progenitor cell proliferation as well as valve cell differentiation. These findings reveal a key role for TGF-ß signaling in cardiac valve regeneration and establish the zebrafish as a model to identify and test factors promoting cardiac valve recellularization and growth.

Calcium Alginate Bead-mediated Enhancement of the Selective Recovery of a Lead Novel Antifungal Bacillomycin Variant.

In the pursuit of new antifungal compounds, five coproduced lipopeptide variants (AF1 to AF5) from wild-type Bacillus subtilis RLID 12.1 were identified in our previous study. Out of five, AF4 was identified as a novel lead molecule belonging to the bacillomycin family showing less cytotoxicity at its respective minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) evaluated against 81 strains of Candida and Cryptococcus species (including clinical isolates); besides this, AF4 purified in the present study exhibited encouraging MIC values against 10 clinical mycelial fungi. Aiming for a selective production augmentation of AF4 lipopeptide variant, a new fermentation media comprising malt extract (1.01%), dextrose (0.55%), peptone (1.79%), MnSO4 (2 mM), and NaCl (0.5%) was formulated. Maximum production of 954.8 ± 10.8 mg/L was achieved with 44% selectivity at 30 °C compared to unoptimized conditions (186.4 ± 6.1 mg/L). Use of calcium alginate beads in the formulated media during the onset of lipopeptide production resulted in an augmentation in the selectivity of the most efficacious AF4 variant to about 72% presumably due to attenuation of other coproduced lipopeptide variants AF1 and AF2. Difference in yield of lipopeptides varied with bead size, bead preparation ratios, and sodium alginate concentrations. Use of Ca-alginate beads in the upstream production process of the lead AF4 variant may be considered as a novel strategy to address the potential challenge that may arise during the scale-up and downstream processing steps. Another significant finding derived from the study is that the proportion of bacillomycin variants of B. subtilis RLID 12.1 could be controlled by temperature and metal ions under static and shaking conditions.