The Tiny Zebrafish as Research Model for Various Diseases

TheIndonesia.co - Tiny but mighty. Researchers explained the potential use of Zebrafish as a research model for various diseases on an international webinar.

The webinar was held by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) of Hassanudin University (Unhas) Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Monday, December 6, 2021.

Unhas's Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Muh. Nasrum Massi Ph.D. said Zebrafish are widely used as research test materials.

"The Zebrafish's transparent embryos that grow outside the mother's body can help researchers to manipulate genes that resemble human diseases, in which changes can be observed directly," said Prof Nasrum.

Dean-Faculty of Biological Sciences Nitte University India, Dr. Anirban Chakraborty, said Zebrafish is a species of fish from the Cyprinidae family with a 3-5 centimeters body size.

Zebrafish live in calm waters with sandy, silty, or gravel soil surfaces in the area of rice fields, wetlands, and aquariums.

He explained that its transparent shape helps scientists study the vascular system and other systems by inserting fluorescence.

There were unexpected scavenging cells found in Zebrafish's brain, which function to get rid of waste. The same kind of cells is also found in the human body, which is used against dementia and stroke.

So far, zebrafish research has yielded knowledge about cancer, diabetes, muscle disease, and more. The little striped fish has great potential to advance medical research in the future.

Several things make researchers choose this fish for research. It has small size, embryonic transparency, rapid ex-utero development, and genome manipulation," he said.

"This fish has the potential as an alternative vertebrate model for biologists, toxicologists, pharmacologists. Zebrafish can effectively complement other mammalian and non-mammal model systems."