PUBLICATION
A novel transgenic zebrafish model for blood-brain and blood-retinal barrier development
- Authors
- Xie, J., Farage, E., Sugimoto, M., and Anand-Apte, B.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-100730-3
- Date
- 2010
- Source
- BMC Developmental Biology 10: 76 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Anand-Apte, Bela, Xie, Jing
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Blood-Brain Barrier/embryology*
- Blood-Retinal Barrier/embryology*
- Claudin-5
- Claudins/metabolism
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism
- Membrane Proteins/metabolism*
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- PubMed
- 20653957 Full text @ BMC Dev. Biol.
Citation
Xie, J., Farage, E., Sugimoto, M., and Anand-Apte, B. (2010) A novel transgenic zebrafish model for blood-brain and blood-retinal barrier development. BMC Developmental Biology. 10:76.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Development and maintenance of the blood-brain and blood-retinal barrier is critical for the homeostasis of brain and retinal tissue. Despite decades of research our knowledge of the formation and maintenance of the blood-brain (BBB) and blood-retinal (BRB) barrier is very limited. We have established an in vivo model to study the development and maintenance of these barriers by generating a transgenic zebrafish line that expresses a vitamin D-binding protein fused with enhanced green fluorescent protein (DBP-EGFP) in blood plasma, as an endogenous tracer. RESULTS: The temporal establishment of the BBB and BRB was examined using this transgenic line and the results were compared with that obtained by injection of fluorescent dyes into the sinus venosus of embryos at various stages of development. We also examined the expression of claudin-5, a component of tight junctions during the first 4 days of development. We observed that the BBB of zebrafish starts to develop by 3 dpf, with expression of claudin-5 in the central arteries preceding it at 2 dpf. The hyaloid vasculature in the zebrafish retina develops a barrier function at 3 dpf, which endows the zebrafish with unique advantages for studying the BRB. CONCLUSION: Zebrafish embryos develop BBB and BRB function simultaneously by 3dpf, which is regulated by tight junction proteins. The Tg(l-fabp:DBP-EGFP) zebrafish will have great advantages in studying development and maintenance of the blood-neural barrier, which is a new application for the widely used vertebrate model.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping