Overview of the roles autophagy plays in bone and cartilage cells, autophagy helps maintain the homeostasis, survival and function of osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes and chondrocytes

Examples of how GFP-Map1Lc3 transgenic zebrafish line can be used to study autophagy in a skeletal context, a Confocal images of the lower jaw and lower jaw joint of a transgenic CMV:EGFP-map1lc3b zebrafish at 3 days post fertilisation (dpf), immunostained for collagen Type II (red) and anti-GFP for lc3 (green). Scale bar = 50 µm and 10 µm, respectively. b Confocal images of epidermal cells in transgenic CMV:EGFP-map1lc3b zebrafish imaged at 5dpf after treated with 100 µl BafilomycinA1 or DMSO for 16 h followed by 45 min live staining in red LysoTracker dye. Inset boxes show zoom of white checked box. Scale bar = 10 µm

Using GFP-Map1Lc3 transgenic zebrafish line to study the role of autophagy in fin fracture repair and bone regeneration – Top, Schematics depicting how bone fracture repair and regeneration assays can be performed in zebrafish and how live staining of bone can be performed in adult zebrafish using Alizarin Red. Bottom, Fluorescent stereomicroscope images of a fracture repair assay performed in a transgenic CMV:EGFP-map1lc3b zebrafish at 6 months post fertilisation, live stained with Alizarin Red (red). Dpi days post injury; scale bar = 200 µm. Figure made in collaboration with Miss Lucy McGowan

Overview of the core proteins involved in the autophagy pathway and its regulation in zebrafish, knockout (KO) zebrafish lines highlighted in red, and boxes show commonly used drugs which can activate (green) or inhibit (red) autophagy activity.