Evaluation of zebrafish kidney function using a fluorescent clearance assay

Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE
Sonia Christou-SavinaDaniel P S Osborn

Abstract

The zebrafish embryo offers a tractable model to study organogenesis and model human genetic disease. Despite its relative simplicity, the zebrafish kidney develops and functions in almost the same way as humans. A major difference in the construction of the human kidney is the presence of millions of nephrons compared to the zebrafish that has only two. However, simplifying such a complex system into basic functional units has aided our understanding of how the kidney develops and operates. In zebrafish, the midline located glomerulus is responsible for the initial blood filtration into two pronephric tubules that diverge to run bilaterally down the embryonic axis before fusing to each other at the cloaca. The pronephric tubules are heavily populated by motile cilia that facilitate the movement of filtrate along the segmented tubule, allowing the exchange of various solutes before finally exiting via the cloaca. Many genes responsible for CKD, including those related to ciliogenesis, have been studied in zebrafish. However, a major draw back has been the difficulty in evaluating zebrafish kidney function after genetic manipulation. Traditional assays to measure kidney dysfunction in humans have proved non translational to zebr...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 17, 2016·World Journal of Stem Cells·Bridgette E Drummond, Rebecca A Wingert
Sep 21, 2017·Scientific Reports·Pui-Ying LamRandall T Peterson
Sep 12, 2018·Cells·Mohamed A ElmonemElena N Levtchenko

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