Abstract
The limited regenerative capacity of several organs, such as central nervous system (CNS), heart and limb in mammals makes related major diseases quite difficult to recover. Therefore, dissection of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying organ regeneration is of great scientific and clinical interests. Tremendous progression has already been made after extensive investigations using several model organisms for decades. Unfortunately, distance to the final achievement of the goal still remains. Recently, zebrafish became a popular model organism for the deep understanding of regeneration based on its powerful regenerative capacity, in particular the organs that are limitedly regenerated in mammals. Additionally, zebrafish are endowed with other advantages good for the study of organ regeneration. This review summarizes the recent progress in the study of zebrafish organ regeneration, in particular regeneration of fin, heart, CNS, and liver as the representatives. We also discuss reasons of the reduced regenerative capacity in higher vertebrate, the roles of inflammation during regeneration, and the difference between organogenesis and regeneration.
Highlights
Regeneration is the restoration of organ mass, structure, and function after damage, which is indispensable for human health
Zebrafish became a popular model organism for the deep understanding of regeneration based on its powerful regenerative capacity, in particular the organs that are limitedly regenerated in mammals
Understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying organ regeneration is critical for the development of therapeutic method after organ damages
Summary
Several methods have been applied in zebrafish to damage or ablate the organs, followed by regeneration. The basic principle of these approaches is the generation of transgenic line driving tissue-specific protein expression, which allows targeted cell ablation under certain conditions. Several types of these proteins have been developed, for example, Diphteria toxin A, bacterial toxin Kid, and Killer Red [16 18]. To achieve that the toxic factors can be conditionally induced, a new approach has recently been developed This method takes advantage of an bacterial enzyme nitroreductase (NTR) that catalyzes a pro-drug metronidazole (Mtz) into a cytotoxic product, crosslinking DNA and inducing cell death [19]. Each approach has its own disadvantages, combinations of them may provide considerable contributions in the regeneration study using zebrafish as the model system
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