Zebrafish Model to Study PCs Role in Angiogenesis and Tumorigenesis

Zebrafish Model to Study PCs Role in Angiogenesis and Tumorigenesis

(Group : Preprotein Convertases, Tumor Invasion and Metastasis)

The zebrafish is now emerging as an effective system for the study of the fundamental aspects of angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. The ability of tumor cells to growth in the transgenic fli-1 zebrafish is with great interests to study tumor cells interaction with endothelial cells, their extravasation and tumor cells-induced angiogenesis. We are using this model to investigate the role of PCs activity tumor progression and angiogenesis.

Regenerating vessels in zebrafich fin. Time-lapse images from regenerating fin vessels of fli1:EGFP transgenic zebrafish show that at 1 day post-amputation (dpa), the regenerating vessels grow out and form plexus at distal ends of individual arteries and veins. The formed plexus continue to grow and form after 10 dpa a well structured artries and vienes.

Tumor cells expressing tomato-vector were injected into eGFP-labelled, transgenic fli-1 zebrafish and tumor cells were visualized under UV light. Vessels are in green and tumor cells in red. Arrow indicates tumor cells that are also shown at higher magnification.