Genetic and chemically-induced Zebrafish models for the study of diabetes mellitus

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) will likely affect over 400 million worldwide by 2030 and is considered a disease resulting from metabolic dysfunction related to the homeostasis of systemic glucose levels.While management of systemic glucose levels is essential to the health of the patient, the long term secondary complications of diabetes poses an equally critical problem.In this regard, evidence from both the laboratory and large scale clinical trials has revealed that complications from the onset of hyperglycemia (such as impaired blood vessel growth) progress unimpeded via the phenomenon of "metabolic memory" (MM) even when glycemic control is pharmaceutically achieved.This applies to both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.Over the past decade considerate effort has been placed toward developing animal models that allow molecular analysis of both 1) glucose regulation processes, and 2) the mechanisms underlying the secondary complications of the disease.A powerful model that has been developed is the teleost, Zebrafish (Danio rerio) because its physiology matches that of the human in regard to glucose regulation and the occurrence of secondary complications resulting from the diabetic state in this model.The development of genetic methods and chemical methods to induce either type 1 and type 2 diabetes in Zebrafish has allowed investigators to better understand the underlying mechanisms of DM and MM.This review will summarize and discuss these genetic and chemically-induced zebrafish DM models with the aim to point out their particular strengths in the study of DM and MM.