Induction of Cancer in Zebra Fish Using Simple Carcinogen

Abstract

Benzene is a very common air pollutant and is known to be a carcinogen. It causes cancer in people who are exposed to benzene vapors over a very long period of time. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death, causing millions of death every year. Zebra fish is a very promising experimental model for drug testing and cancer studies. In this experiment benzene was used as a carcinogen in zebra fishes to check if it induces cancer in the fishes. These cancer induced fishes may be used for drug discovery and testing for cancer therapy. Different concentrations of benzene were injected into the zebra fishes, and the fishes were monitored over a period of 14 days. The fishes were observed for presence of any cancerous growth, and their weights were checked in order to determine any increase in mass. The results were inconclusive as no tumor growth was observed. This could be due to the short time over which they were monitored or the concentration of benzene being used may be low. May be if the time period, the period of exposure and the concentration of the benzene were increased, some significant results might be observed.