PUBLICATION

Modeling Infectious Diseases in the Context of a Developing Immune System

Authors
Masud, S., Torraca, V., Meijer, A.H.
ID
ZDB-PUB-170326-10
Date
2017
Source
Current topics in developmental biology   124: 277-329 (Chapter)
Registered Authors
Masud, Samrah, Meijer, Annemarie H., Torraca, Vincenzo
Keywords
Emergency hematopoiesis, Host–pathogen interaction, Infection, Inflammation, Innate immunity, Macrophage, Microbiome, Mycobacterium, Neutrophil, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Communicable Diseases/immunology*
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/immunology
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/microbiology
  • Immune System/embryology*
  • Immune System/microbiology
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/immunology*
  • Zebrafish/microbiology
PubMed
28335862 Full text @ Curr. Top. Dev. Biol.
Abstract
Zebrafish has been used for over a decade to study the mechanisms of a wide variety of inflammatory disorders and infections, with models ranging from bacterial, viral, to fungal pathogens. Zebrafish has been especially relevant to study the differentiation, specialization, and polarization of the two main innate immune cell types, the macrophages and the neutrophils. The optical accessibility and the early appearance of myeloid cells that can be tracked with fluorescent labels in zebrafish embryos and the ability to use genetics to selectively ablate or expand immune cell populations have permitted studying the interaction between infection, development, and metabolism. Additionally, zebrafish embryos are readily colonized by a commensal flora, which facilitated studies that emphasize the requirement for immune training by the natural microbiota to properly respond to pathogens. The remarkable conservation of core mechanisms required for the recognition of microbial and danger signals and for the activation of the immune defenses illustrates the high potential of the zebrafish model for biomedical research. This review will highlight recent insight that the developing zebrafish has contributed to our understanding of host responses to invading microbes and the involvement of the microbiome in several physiological processes. These studies are providing a mechanistic basis for developing novel therapeutic approaches to control infectious diseases.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping