PUBLICATION

Using Zebrafish to Study Kidney Development and Disease

Authors
Jerman, S., Sun, Z.
ID
ZDB-PUB-170326-8
Date
2017
Source
Current topics in developmental biology   124: 41-79 (Chapter)
Registered Authors
Sun, Zhaoxia
Keywords
Acute kidney injury, Ciliopathy, Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract, HDACi, Kidney development, Kidney disease, Kidney regeneration, Polycystic kidney disease, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Humans
  • Kidney/embryology*
  • Kidney Diseases/pathology*
  • Organogenesis*
  • Regeneration
  • Stem Cells/cytology
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
PubMed
28335864 Full text @ Curr. Top. Dev. Biol.
Abstract
The kidneys are a crucial pair of organs that are responsible for filtering the blood to remove waste, maintain electrolyte and water homeostasis, and regulate blood pressure. There are a number of factors, both genetic and environmental, that can impair the function of the kidneys resulting in significant morbidity and mortality for millions of people affected by kidney disease worldwide. The zebrafish, Danio rerio, has emerged as an attractive vertebrate model in the study of kidney development and disease and has proven to be a powerful tool in the advancement of how kidney development occurs in vertebrates and how the kidney repairs itself after injury. Zebrafish share significant similarities in kidney development and composition of nephrons, the functional unit of the kidney. This makes the zebrafish a very promising model to study the mechanisms by which renal developmental defects occur. Furthermore, zebrafish are ideally suited for the study of how vertebrate kidneys respond to injury and have provided researchers with invaluable information on repair processes after kidney injury. Importantly, zebrafish have profound potential for discovering treatment modalities and, in fact, studies in zebrafish models have provided leads for therapeutics for human patients suffering from kidney disease and kidney injury. Here, we discuss the similarities and differences in zebrafish and mammalian kidney models, and highlight some of the major contributions the zebrafish has made in the understanding of kidney development and disease.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping