REGENERATION IN

ZEBRAFISH ORGANS

PREPARED BY ALIZA NAEEM

SCIENTIFIC NAME :

Danio rerio

● 16 to 18
segmented
bony rays

● Bony rays are

separated by
inter ray
tissues
The process of regeneration of fin occurs in three steps
● De differentiation

● Blastema proliferation and migration

● Re differentiation of blastema cells

The regenerated fin can be divided into 4 different section :

● DISTAL BLASTEMA : made of non proliferative fibroblasts

● PROLIFERATING PROXIMAL BLASTEMA : constitutes de

differentiated mesenchyme

● DIFFERENTIATING PROXIMAL BLASTEMA : adds

differentiated cells to the newly formed tissue

● LATERAL EPIDERMAL COMPLEX SIGNALLING CENTER :

provides signals throughout the regeneration
The molecular regulation of regeneration is quite complex, there
are a lot of signaling centre one of them is :

Wnt/β catenin signaling centre

Wnt : wingless related integration site

Role of Wnt : cell growth , motility , differentiation

Β catenin : dual function protein

Role of β catenin : cell to cell adhesion and gene transcription

Wnt/βcatenin is active in distal blastema and lateralmost region of
proliferating proximal blastema constitutes progenitors of osteoblasts and
actinotrichia

Low or high level of signaling results in decrease or increase of

blastema proliferation and regeneration rate respectively

Misexpression of β catenin inhibitor Axin1 results in reduced fin rays

Wnt/βcatenin works indirectly with

● IGF
● FGF
● BMP
● RA
● HEDGEHOG
REGENERATION MECHANISMS IN
HEART OF ZEBRAFISH
The zebrafish heart retains the ability to regenerate throughout
the life of the fish which is due to the sustained mitotic capacity
of the cardiomyocytes that constitutes the majority of heart
portion

Zebrafish heart regenerates by three mechanisms of

regeneration

● Epimorphosis
● Compensatory mechanism
● Morphallaxis or transdifferentiation
EPIMORPHOSIS

The pre existing cardiomyocytes undergo

de differentiation , then establishment of blastema at
the wound by proliferationa nd migration and
eventually redifferentiation of blastema cells at newly
formed tissue
COMPENSATORY MECHANISM OF REGENERATION :

The healthy ventricular tissue away from acute injury

responds by increasing proliferation : hyperplasia ,which
is the compensatory mechanism of regeneration
TRANS DIFFERENTIATION :

Researchers had performed experiment to study this mechanism of

regeneration .

An injury was induced in the heart of larvae zebra fish .

This injury was induced in the ventricular tissue where nitroreductase
(NTR) was targeted by ventricular myosin heavy chain promoter and cell
death is induced by NTR reactive cytotoxic pro drug
Surprisingly it was observed that the neighbouring atrial cardiomyocytes
responded to injury by migrating to the damaged ventricular tissue and
upregulated genes
Atrial mediated repair of ventricle was signaled by NOTCH DELTA .
ROLE OF BMP AND FGF IN REGENERATION :

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and fibroblast growth

factors (FGFs) are two major signal protein families that have a lot
in common

The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family of ligands plays

important roles in a multitude of processes during embryonic
development and adult homeostasis by regulating cellular
lineage commitment, morphogenesis, differentiation,
proliferation, and apoptosis of various types of cells
throughout the body