Zebrafish as a new animal model to study lymphangiogenesis.

[lymphedemapeople]

Zebrafish as a new animal model to study lymphangiogenesis.

Anat Sci Int. 2009 Mar 14

Isogai S, Hitomi J, Yaniv K, Weinstein BM.
Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University,
19-1 Uchimaru, Morioka, 020-8505, Japan, sis...@iwate-med.ac.jp.

The lymphatic system is essential for fluid homeostasis, fat
absorption and immune responses, and also plays key roles under
pathological conditions, such as tumor metastasis, lymphoedema and
inflammation. The main function of the lymphatic vascular system is to
return excess interstitial fluid back to the blood vascular system.
Lymph, including fluid, macromolecules, leukocytes and activated
antigen-presenting cells, is transported from the blind-ended
lymphatic capillaries toward the collecting lymphatic vessels; for
there, it is returned to the blood circulation through lymphatico-
venous junctions (Alitalo et al. in Nature 438:946-954, 2005). Despite
its importance, lymphangiogenesis remains poorly understood. The lack
of specific markers has complicated the identification of lymph
vessels, and a small animal model that could be genetically
manipulated to discover the function of novel lymphangiogenic
candidates has only recently become available (Ny et al. in Nat Med 11
(9):998-1004, 2005). Since 2004, we have worked to make the zebrafish
a new genetic model for unraveling the function of candidate genes
involved in lymphangiogenesis. We have demonstrated that zebrafish
possess a lymphatic vascular system that shares the morphological,
molecular and functional characteristics of the lymphatic vessels
found in other vertebrates (Yaniv et al. in Nat Med 12(6):711-716,
2006). In this process, we realized that it was necessary to seek a
common definition for the lymph system which would be applicable from
fish to man. The aim of this article is to review classical, mainly
morphological, studies in order to elucidate the nature of the
lymphatic system.

Springer Link

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19288175?ordinalpos=66&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum