There are a number of practical advantages of zebrafish that make these vertebrates amenable for health related research. They reach sexual maturity within 3-4 months, reproduce year round, and produce clutch sizes that range between 100 and 200 embryos per mating pair. Therefore, a modest size colony can produce thousands of eggs daily. The small size of these fish allows their maintenance at high densities. The infrastructure and maintenance costs required for housing large numbers of animals for comprehensive studies is relatively low. Another major advantage is that, unlike many other systems, zebrafish embryos develop externally and are optically transparent. This allows for simple non-invasive microscopic observation of individual cells in vivo across a broad range of developmental stages. Embryonic developmental progression is also rapid compared to mammals. For instance, the zebrafish heart is formed and beating 24 hours post fertilization (hpf) m. Overall, much of the anatomy and physiology of fish is highly homologous to humans and the biomedical research community is just beginning to exploit these similarities (reviewed in [zl). Currently, the ZFIN web site (http://zfin.org/cgi-bin/webdriver7Mlvat aa-ZDB_home.apg) lists 453 laboratories using zebrafish. Initially led by research in developmental genetics, zebrafish are now extensively used as models for infectious diseases and immune system function [3!, to understand hematopoiesis and related diseases [4], for aging [5], oncology 561cardiovascular development m, kidney development and disease I8], for identifying the etiology of diseases of the eye191 and earm, for understanding mechanisms of drug abuse 111121 and for regenerative medicine[13,14]
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