Abstract
In recent decades, many studies using the zebrafish model organism have been performed. Zebrafish, providing genetic mutants and reporter transgenic lines, enable a great number of studies aiming at the investigation of signaling pathways involved in the osteoarticular system and at the identification of therapeutic tools for bone diseases. In this review, we will discuss studies which demonstrate that many signaling pathways are highly conserved between mammals and teleost and that genes involved in mammalian bone differentiation have orthologs in zebrafish. We will also discuss as human diseases, such as osteogenesis imperfecta, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and Gaucher disease can be investigated in the zebrafish model.
Highlights
A peculiar feature of vertebrates is bone, a rigid but dynamic tissue giving support to the organism body structure from the inside
Zebrafish turns out to be an attractive and simple model to generate genetic mutant and fluorescent reporter transgenic lines. Such models allow numerous studies revealing genes and signaling pathways involved in cartilage/bone development and homeostasis as well as genetic mutations associated with bone diseases in humans, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and others
A sharp increase in the expression of genes coding for bone matrix proteins such as Sparc, Bglap, Spp1, and Col1a2 is appreciable up to 7 dpf, followed by a strong decrease: this indicates that bone matrix is mostly formed at 7 dpf and that further ossification is mainly due to mineral deposition
Summary
A peculiar feature of vertebrates is bone, a rigid but dynamic tissue giving support to the organism body structure from the inside. The predominant types of skeletal tissues, bone and cartilage, and the main categories of skeletal cells (chondroblasts, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteoclasts) are present in teleost as wells as in mammals [3]. Both humans and zebrafish develop endochondral and dermal bones as well as cartilage that persist in the adult [4]. Zebrafish turns out to be an attractive and simple model to generate genetic mutant and fluorescent reporter transgenic lines Such models allow numerous studies revealing genes and signaling pathways involved in cartilage/bone development and homeostasis as well as genetic mutations associated with bone diseases in humans, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and others
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