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Heinkele FJ, Lou B, Erben V, Bennewitz K, Poschet G, Sticht C, Kroll J. Metabolic and Transcriptional Adaptations Improve Physical Performance of Zebrafish. Antioxidants (Basel) 2021; 10:antiox10101581. [PMID: 34679716 PMCID: PMC8533608 DOI: 10.3390/antiox10101581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Revised: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Obesity is a worldwide public health problem with increasing prevalence and affects 80% of diabetes mellitus type 2 cases. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an established model organism for studying obesity and diabetes including diabetic microvascular complications. We aimed to determine whether physical activity is an appropriate tool to examine training effects in zebrafish and to analyse metabolic and transcriptional processes in trained zebrafish. A 2- and 8-week experimental training phase protocol with adult zebrafish in a swim tunnel system was established. We examined zebrafish basic characteristics before and after training such as body weight, body length and maximum speed and considered overfeeding as an additional parameter in the 8-weeks training protocol. Ultimately, the effects of training and overfeeding on blood glucose, muscle core metabolism and liver gene expression using RNA-Seq were investigated. Zebrafish maximum speed was correlated with body length and was significantly increased after 2 weeks of training. Maximum swim speed further increased after 8 weeks of training in both the normal-fed and the overfed groups, but training was found not to be sufficient in preventing weight gain in overfed fish. Metabolome and transcriptome profiling in trained fish exhibited increased blood glucose levels in the short-term and upregulated energy supply pathways as well as response to oxidative stress in the long-term. In conclusion, swim training is a valuable tool to study the effects of physical activity in zebrafish, which is accompanied by metabolic and transcriptional adaptations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Franziska J. Heinkele
- Department of Vascular Biology and Tumor Angiogenesis, European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany; (F.J.H.); (B.L.); (V.E.); (K.B.)
| | - Bowen Lou
- Department of Vascular Biology and Tumor Angiogenesis, European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany; (F.J.H.); (B.L.); (V.E.); (K.B.)
| | - Vanessa Erben
- Department of Vascular Biology and Tumor Angiogenesis, European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany; (F.J.H.); (B.L.); (V.E.); (K.B.)
| | - Katrin Bennewitz
- Department of Vascular Biology and Tumor Angiogenesis, European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany; (F.J.H.); (B.L.); (V.E.); (K.B.)
| | - Gernot Poschet
- Metabolomics Core Technology Platform, Centre for Organismal Studies, Heidelberg University, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany;
| | - Carsten Sticht
- NGS Core Facility, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany;
| | - Jens Kroll
- Department of Vascular Biology and Tumor Angiogenesis, European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany; (F.J.H.); (B.L.); (V.E.); (K.B.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-(0)621-383-71455
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Ma X, Xu X. A Swimming-based Assay to Determine the Exercise Capacity of Adult Zebrafish Cardiomyopathy Models. Bio Protoc 2021; 11:e4114. [PMID: 34458408 DOI: 10.21769/bioprotoc.4114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2020] [Revised: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Exercise capacity, measured by treadmill in humans and other mammals, is an important diagnostic and prognostic index for patients with cardiomyopathy and heart failure. The adult zebrafish is increasingly used as a vertebrate model to study human cardiomyopathy due to its conserved cardiovascular physiology, convenience for genetic manipulation, and amenability to high-throughput genetic and compound screening. Owing to the small size of its body and heart, new phenotyping assays are needed to unveil phenotypic traits of cardiomyopathy in adult zebrafish. Here, we describe a swimming-based functional assay that measures exercise capacity in an adult zebrafish doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy model. This protocol can be applied to any adult zebrafish model of acquired or inherited cardiomyopathy and potentially to other cardiovascular diseases. Graphic abstract: Clinical relevance of the swimming-based phenotyping assay in adult zebrafish cardiomyopathy models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Ma
- Cardiorenal Research Laboratory, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, USA
| | - Xiaolei Xu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, USA
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