Project description:Host response to systemic bacterial challenge (sepsis) with E. coli strains CFT073 and F11 at 6 and 12 hours post inoculum 48 hpf embryos were manually dechorianated, briefly anesthetized with 0.77 mM ethyl 3-aminobenzoate methanesulfonate salt (tricaine) (Sigma-Aldrich), and embedded in 0.8% low melt agarose (MO BIO Laboratories) without tricaine. After the agarose solidified, embryos were immersed in E3 media lacking methylene blue. Prior to injection, 1 ml of bacterial culture was pelleted, washed with 1 ml sterile PBS, and re-suspended in PBS to obtain ~1X109 CFU/ml. PBS. One nl of this bacterial suspension containing ~1000 CFU was microinjected into the bloodstream via the circulation valley using an Olympus SZ61 or SZX10 stereomicroscope together with a YOU-1 micromanipulator (Narishige), a Narishige IM-200 microinjector, and a JUN-AIR model 3-compressor. For each experiment, the average CFU per injection was determined by adding 10 1-nl drops to 1 ml of 0.7% NaCl, which was then serial diluted and plated on Luria-Bertani (LB) agar plates. Mock-infected controls were inoculated with 1 nl sterile PBS. Following injection, embryos were removed from agar and placed individually into wells of a 48-well plate (Nunc) containing E3 medium and incubated at 28.5°C. Experiments were performed in biological quadruplicate.
Project description:Amputation of heart tissue followed by regeneration of the heart. Samples were taken at 0 hpa (hours post-amputation), 6 hpa, 12 hpa, 24 hpa, 3 dpa and 5 dpa.
Project description:Zebrafish are an important model organism with inherent advantages that have the potential to make zebrafish a widely applied model for the study of energy homeostasis and obesity. The small size of zebrafish allows for assays on embryos to be conducted in a 96- or 384-well plate format, Morpholino and CRISPR based technologies promote ease of genetic manipulation, and drug treatment by bath application is viable. Moreover, zebrafish are ideal for forward genetic screens allowing for novel gene discovery. Given the relative novelty of zebrafish as a model for obesity, it is necessary to develop tools that fully exploit these benefits. Herein, we describe a method to measure energy expenditure in thousands of embryonic zebrafish simultaneously. We have developed a whole animal microplate platform in which we use 96-well plates to isolate individual fish and we assess cumulative NADH2 production using the commercially available cell culture viability reagent alamarBlue. In poikilotherms the relationship between NADH2 production and energy expenditure is tightly linked. This energy expenditure assay creates the potential to rapidly screen pharmacological or genetic manipulations that directly alter energy expenditure or alter the response to an applied drug (e.g. insulin sensitizers).
Project description:Comparison of temporal small RNA gene expression profiles from Danio rerio skin. The smallRNA-seq data comprise 5 age groups at 6, 12, 24, 36 and 42 months. Jena Centre for Systems Biology of Ageing - JenAge (www.jenage.de)
Project description:Comparison of temporal small RNA gene expression profiles from Danio rerio brain. The smallRNA-seq data comprise 5 age groups at 6, 12, 24, 36 and 42 months. Jena Centre for Systems Biology of Ageing - JenAge (www.jenage.de)
Project description:The complexes formed by BCL10, MALT1 and specific members of the family of CARMA proteins (CBM complex), have recently focused much attention because they represent a central hub regulating activation of the transcription factor NF-κB following various cellular stimulations. In this manuscript, we report the functional characterization of a Danio rerio 241 amino acids polypeptide ortholog of the Caspase recruiting domain (CARD)-containing protein BCL10. Biochemical studies show that zebrafish Bcl10 (zBcl10) dimerizes and binds to components of the CBM complex. Fluorescence microscopy observations demonstrate that zBcl10 forms cytoplasmic filaments similar to that formed by human BCL10 (hBCL10). Functionally, in human cells zBcl10 is more effective in activating NF-κB compared to hBCL10, possibly due to the lack of carboxy-terminal inhibitory serine residues present in the human protein. Also, depletion experiments carried out through expression of short hairpin RNAs targeting hBCL10 indicate that zBcl10 can functionally replace the human protein. Finally, we show that the zebrafish cell line PAC2 is suitable to carry out reporter assays for monitoring the activation state of NF- kB transcription factor. In conclusion, this work shows that zebrafish may excellently serve as a model organism to study complex and intricate signal transduction pathways, such as those that control NF-κB activation.