Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis in Zebrafish Models
Summary
Zebrafish have emerged as a powerful vertebrate system to study lipid homeostasis and early atherogenesis owing to their optical transparency, genetic tractability and conserved lipid metabolic pathways. Larval zebrafish develop diet-induced hypercholesterolaemia and accumulate vascular lipid deposits within days of high-cholesterol feeding, recapitulating key events in human dyslipidaemia. Retention of a cholesteryl ester transfer protein orthologue and conserved low-density lipoprotein receptor function enable mechanistic interrogation of cholesterol transport, lipoprotein remodelling and macrophage recruitment in vivo. Transgenic lines expressing fluorescent reporters in endothelial cells, macrophages and lipid droplets permit dynamic in vivo imaging of lesion formation and cell-cell interactions. Coupled with genome editing and small-molecule screens, zebrafish models accelerate discovery of genetic modulators of lipid uptake, transport and clearance, evaluation of candidate anti-atherosclerotic agents and elucidation of pathways coupling endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and inflammatory signalling to plaque initiation. These approaches hold significant promise for translating insights from fish to human cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment on a global scale.
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Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis in Zebrafish Models publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis in zebrafish models across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Hypercholesterolaemia: Elevated levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream.
Lipoprotein: A complex of lipids and proteins that transports fats through the circulatory system.
Atherosclerotic plaque: A lipid-rich lesion within the arterial wall associated with vascular inflammation and fibrosis.
Transgenic: An organism genetically modified to carry foreign DNA for research or therapeutic purposes.
Optical transparency: The property of zebrafish larvae that permits non-invasive live imaging of internal processes.
References
- Zebrafish Models for Dyslipidemia and Atherosclerosis Research. Frontiers in Endocrinology (2016).
- Recent Application of Zebrafish Models in Atherosclerosis Research. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (2021).
- Modeling hypercholesterolemia and vascular lipid accumulation in LDL receptor mutant zebrafish. Journal of Lipid Research (2017).
- Zebrafish Model for Screening Antiatherosclerosis Drugs. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (2021).
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