Key result
Puncturing the zebrafish ventricle induces regenerative responses equivalent to resection at milder degrees, while scratching induces subtle proliferation without full regeneration.
Ventricular puncture in zebrafish serves as a simple, milder injury model that induces regenerative responses similar to apex resection, whereas ventricular scratching is useful for studying epicardial wound responses without full regeneration.
Milder zebrafish injury models may refine cardiac regeneration research; leaves open translation to mammalian or human repair.
BACKGROUND: The zebrafish heart regenerates after various severe injuries. Common processes of heart regeneration are cardiomyocyte proliferation, activation of epicardial tissue, and neovascularization. In order to further characterize heart regeneration processes, we introduced milder injuries and compared responses to those induced by ventricular apex resection, a widely used injury method. We used scratching of the ventricular surface and puncturing of the ventricle with a fine tungsten needle as injury-inducing techniques. RESULTS: Scratching the ventricular surface induced subtle cardiomyocyte proliferation and responses of the epicardium. Endothelial cell accumulation was limited to the surface of the heart. Ventricular puncture induced cardiomyocyte proliferation, endocardial and epicardial activation, and neo-vascularization, similar to the resection method. However, the degree of the responses was milder, correlating with milder injury. Sham operation induced epicardial aldh1a2 expression but not tbx18 and WT1. CONCLUSIONS: Puncturing the ventricle induces responses equivalent to resection at milder degrees in a shorter time frame and can be used as a simple injury model. Scratching the ventricle did not induce heart regeneration and can be used for studying wound responses to epicardium.
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Itou et al. (2014) studied Heart injury and regeneration. Scratching or puncturing the ventricular surface vs. Ventricular apex resection and sham operation was evaluated on Cardiomyocyte proliferation, epicardial activation, and neovascularization. Puncturing the zebrafish ventricle induces regenerative responses equivalent to resection at milder degrees, while scratching induces subtle proliferation without full regeneration.
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