Zebrafish Helps Assess Cryoprotectant Agents for Organ Preservation

Zebrafish exhibits a crucial role in the fields of solid organ preservation and transplantation, especially with respect to experimental transplantation efforts. With the use of such a model, researchers have identified a mixture of chemicals that can be used to preserve various organs, when they are frozen for a long time prior to transplantation (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Zebrafish as a high throughput model for organ preservation and transplantation research

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Organ Preservation: Zebrafish Guides to Formulate Cryoprotectants

The work, which is published in The FASEB Journal, involved a variety of methods, including assays at multiple developmental stages, techniques for loading and unloading agents, and the use of viability scores to quantify organ function. These methods allowed scientists to perform the largest and most comprehensive screen of cryoprotectant agents to determine their toxicity and efficiency at preserving complex organ systems during storage at -10°C. As a result, adult zebrafish hearts’ cardiac function was successfully preserved after 5 days of storage.

“Zebrafish are a powerful model system that has never been used in the context of solid organ preservation for transplantation, despite several advantages,” said corresponding author Shannon N. Tessier, Ph.D., of the Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Harvard Medical School. “We hope this research will encourage others in transplantation sciences to leverage this important model organism.”

Reference:

1. Zebrafish as a high throughput model for organ preservation and transplantation research - (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fj.202300076R)

Source-Eurekalert