A Comparative Analysis of the Venom System between Two Morphotypes of the Sea Anemone Actinia equina.

The current study investigates the venom-delivery system of green and red morphotypes of the sea anemone Actinia equina to disclose its potential as a source of bioactive compounds. We compared the two morphotypes using electron and optical microscopy, proteomics, and toxicity assessment on zebrafish embryos. Specialized venom-injecting cells (nematocysts) are equally distributed and found in the tentacles of both varieties. Proteomics revealed proteins of interest in both red and green Actinia, yielding the three most abundant Gene Ontology (GO) terms related to the biological processes "proteolysis", "hemolysis in another organism" and "lipid catabolic process". Neurotoxins and cytolytic toxins similar to known cnidarian toxins like PsTX-60A and AvTX-60A, for instance, were identified in both types. Extracts from green and red anemones were toxic to zebrafish embryos, with green anemone venom appearing to be more potent. The findings highlight the presence of proteinaceous toxins in A. equina and the potential for different varieties to possess distinct bioactive compounds. Notably, pore-forming toxins are suggested for molecular probes and immunotoxins, making them valuable assets for potential biotechnological and biomedical purposes.

Development and repair of blood vessels in the zebrafish spinal cord.

The vascular system is inefficiently repaired after spinal cord injury (SCI) in mammals, resulting in secondary tissue damage and immune deregulation that contribute to the limited functional recovery. Unlike mammals, zebrafish can repair the spinal cord (SC) and restore motility, but the vascular response to injury has not been investigated. Here, we describe the zebrafish SC blood vasculature, starting in development with the initial vessel ingression in a body size-dependent manner, the acquisition of perivascular support and the establishment of ventral to dorsal blood circulation. The vascular organization grows in complexity and displays multiple barrier specializations in adulthood. After injury, vessels rapidly regrow into the lesion, preceding the glial bridge and axons. Vascular repair involves an early burst of angiogenesis that creates dysmorphic and leaky vessels. Dysfunctional vessels are later removed, as pericytes are recruited and the blood-SC barrier is re-established. This study demonstrates that zebrafish can successfully re-vascularize the spinal tissue, reinforcing the value of this organism as a regenerative model for SCI.

Using the MouseWalker to Quantify Locomotor Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Spinal Cord Injury.

The execution of complex and highly coordinated motor programs, such as walking and running, is dependent on the rhythmic activation of spinal and supra-spinal circuits. After a thoracic spinal cord injury, communication with upstream circuits is impaired. This, in turn, leads to a loss of coordination, with limited recovery potential. Hence, to better evaluate the degree of recovery after the administration of drugs or therapies, there is a necessity for new, more detailed, and accurate tools to quantify gait, limb coordination, and other fine aspects of locomotor behavior in animal models of spinal cord injury. Several assays have been developed over the years to quantitatively assess free-walking behavior in rodents; however, they usually lack direct measurements related to stepping gait strategies, footprint patterns, and coordination. To address these shortcomings, an updated version of the MouseWalker, which combines a frustrated total internal reflection (fTIR) walkway with tracking and quantification software, is provided. This open-source system has been adapted to extract several graphical outputs and kinematic parameters, and a set of post-quantification tools can be to analyze the output data provided. This manuscript also demonstrates how this method, allied with already established behavioral tests, quantitatively describes locomotor deficits following spinal cord injury.

Mouse Spinal Cord Vascular Transcriptome Analysis Identifies CD9 and MYLIP as Injury-Induced Players.

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) initiates a cascade of cellular events, culminating in irreversible tissue loss and neuroinflammation. After the trauma, the blood vessels are destroyed. The blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), a physical barrier between the blood and spinal cord parenchyma, is disrupted, facilitating the infiltration of immune cells, and contributing to a toxic spinal microenvironment, affecting axonal regeneration. Understanding how the vascular constituents of the BSCB respond to injury is crucial to prevent BSCB impairment and to improve spinal cord repair. Here, we focus our attention on the vascular transcriptome at 3- and 7-days post-injury (dpi), during which BSCB is abnormally leaky, to identify potential molecular players that are injury-specific. Using the mouse contusion model, we identified Cd9 and Mylip genes as differentially expressed at 3 and 7 dpi. CD9 and MYLIP expression were injury-induced on vascular cells, endothelial cells and pericytes, at the injury epicentre at 7 dpi, with a spatial expression predominantly at the caudal region of the lesion. These results establish CD9 and MYLIP as two new potential players after SCI, and future studies targeting their expression might bring promising results for spinal cord repair.

DNGR-1-tracing marks an ependymal cell subset with damage-responsive neural stem cell potential.

Cells with latent stem ability can contribute to mammalian tissue regeneration after damage. Whether the central nervous system (CNS) harbors such cells remains controversial. Here, we report that DNGR-1 lineage tracing in mice identifies an ependymal cell subset, wherein resides latent regenerative potential. We demonstrate that DNGR-1-lineage-traced ependymal cells arise early in embryogenesis (E11.5) and subsequently spread across the lining of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-filled compartments to form a contiguous sheet from the brain to the end of the spinal cord. In the steady state, these DNGR-1-traced cells are quiescent, committed to their ependymal cell fate, and do not contribute to neuronal or glial lineages. However, trans-differentiation can be induced in adult mice by CNS injury or in vitro by culture with suitable factors. Our findings highlight previously unappreciated ependymal cell heterogeneity and identify across the entire CNS an ependymal cell subset wherein resides damage-responsive neural stem cell potential.

Activation of Nkx2.5 transcriptional program is required for adult myocardial repair.

The cardiac developmental network has been associated with myocardial regenerative potential. However, the embryonic signals triggered following injury have yet to be fully elucidated. Nkx2.5 is a key causative transcription factor associated with human congenital heart disease and one of the earliest markers of cardiac progenitors, thus it serves as a promising candidate. Here, we show that cardiac-specific RNA-sequencing studies reveal a disrupted embryonic transcriptional profile in the adult Nkx2.5 loss-of-function myocardium. nkx2.5-/- fish exhibit an impaired ability to recover following ventricular apex amputation with diminished dedifferentiation and proliferation. Complex network analyses illuminate that Nkx2.5 is required to provoke proteolytic pathways necessary for sarcomere disassembly and to mount a proliferative response for cardiomyocyte renewal. Moreover, Nkx2.5 targets embedded in these distinct gene regulatory modules coordinate appropriate, multi-faceted injury responses. Altogether, our findings support a previously unrecognized, Nkx2.5-dependent regenerative circuit that invokes myocardial cell cycle re-entry, proteolysis, and mitochondrial metabolism to ensure effective regeneration in the teleost heart.

The right time for senescence.

Cellular senescence is a highly complex and programmed cellular state with diverse and, at times, conflicting physiological and pathological roles across the lifespan of an organism. Initially considered a cell culture artifact, senescence evolved from an age-related circumstance to an intricate cellular defense mechanism in response to stress, implicated in a wide spectrum of biological processes like tissue remodelling, injury and cancer. The development of new tools to study senescence in vivo paved the way to uncover its functional roles in various frameworks, which are sometimes hard to reconcile. Here, we review the functional impact of senescent cells on different organismal contexts. We provide updated insights on the role of senescent cells in tissue repair and regeneration, in which they essentially modulate the levels of fibrosis and inflammation, discussing how "time" seems to be the key maestro of their effects. Finally, we overview the current clinical research landscape to target senescent cells and contemplate its repercussions on this fast-evolving field.

Targeting senescent cells improves functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Persistent senescent cells (SCs) are known to underlie aging-related chronic disorders, but it is now recognized that SCs may be at the center of tissue remodeling events, namely during development or organ repair. In this study, we show that two distinct senescence profiles are induced in the context of a spinal cord injury between the regenerative zebrafish and the scarring mouse. Whereas induced SCs in zebrafish are progressively cleared out, they accumulate over time in mice. Depletion of SCs in spinal-cord-injured mice, with different senolytic drugs, improves locomotor, sensory, and bladder functions. This functional recovery is associated with improved myelin sparing, reduced fibrotic scar, and attenuated inflammation, which correlate with a decreased secretion of pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory factors. Targeting SCs is a promising therapeutic strategy not only for spinal cord injuries but potentially for other organs that lack regenerative competence.

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived vascular networks to screen nano-bio interactions.

The vascular bioactivity/safety of nanomaterials is typically evaluated by animal testing, which is of low throughput and does not account for biological differences between animals and humans such as ageing, metabolism and disease profiles. The development of personalized human in vitro platforms to evaluate the interaction of nanomaterials with the vascular system would be important for both therapeutic and regenerative medicine. A library of 30 nanoparticle (NP) formulations, in use in imaging, antimicrobial and pharmaceutical applications, was evaluated in a reporter zebrafish model of vasculogenesis and then tested in personalized humanized models composed of human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived endothelial cells (ECs) with "young" and "aged" phenotypes in 3 vascular network formats: 2D (in polystyrene dish), 3D (in Matrigel) and in a blood vessel on a chip. As a proof of concept, vascular toxicity was used as the main readout. The results show that the toxicity profile of NPs to hiPSC-ECs was dependent on the "age" of the endothelial cells and vascular network format. hiPSC-ECs were less susceptible to the cytotoxicity effect of NPs when cultured in flow than in static conditions, the protective effect being mediated, at least in part, by glycocalyx. Overall, the results presented here highlight the relevance of in vitro hiPSC-derived vascular systems to screen vascular nanomaterial interactions.

Low doses of ionizing radiation enhance angiogenesis and consequently accelerate post-embryonic development but not regeneration in zebrafish.

Low doses of ionizing radiation (LDIR) activate endothelial cells inducing angiogenesis. In zebrafish, LDIR induce vessel formation in the sub-intestinal vessels during post-embryonic development and enhance the inter-ray vessel density in adult fin regeneration. Since angiogenesis is a crucial process involved in both post-embryonic development and regeneration, herein we aimed to understand whether LDIR accelerate these physiological conditions. Our data show that LDIR upregulate the gene expression of several pro-angiogenic molecules, such as flt1, kdr, angpt2a, tgfb2, fgf2 and cyr61in sorted endothelial cells from zebrafish larvae and this effect was abrogated by using a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Irradiated zebrafish present normal indicators of developmental progress but, importantly LDIR accelerate post-embryonic development in a VEGFR-2 dependent signaling. Furthermore, our data show that LDIR do not accelerate regeneration after caudal fin amputation and the gene expression of the early stages markers of regeneration are not modulated by LDIR. Even though regeneration is considered as a recapitulation of embryonic development and LDIR induce angiogenesis in both conditions, our findings show that LDIR accelerate post-embryonic development but not regeneration. This highlights the importance of the physiological context for a specific phenotype promoted by LDIR.

Author Correction: A zebrafish drug screening platform boosts the discovery of novel therapeutics for spinal cord injury in mammals.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

A zebrafish drug screening platform boosts the discovery of novel therapeutics for spinal cord injury in mammals.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complex condition, with limited therapeutic options, that results in sensory and motor disabilities. To boost discovery of novel therapeutics, we designed a simple and efficient drug screening platform. This innovative approach allows to determine locomotor rescue properties of small molecules in a zebrafish (Danio rerio) larval spinal cord transection model. We validated our screening platform by showing that Riluzole and Minocycline, two molecules that are in clinical trials for SCI, promote rescue of the locomotor function of the transected larvae. Further validation of the platform was obtained through the blind identification of D-Cycloserine, a molecule scheduled to enter phase IV clinical trials for SCI. Importantly, we identified Tranexamic acid and further showed that this molecule maintains its locomotor recovery properties in a rodent female contusion model. Our screening platform, combined with drug repurposing, promises to propel the rapid translation of novel therapeutics to improve SCI recovery in humans.

Fine-tuning of fgf8a expression through alternative polyadenylation has a selective impact on Fgf-associated developmental processes.

The formation of distinct 3'UTRs through alternative polyadenylation is a mechanism of gene expression regulation that has been implicated in many physiological and pathological processes. However, its functions in the context of vertebrate embryonic development have been largely unaddressed, in particular with a gene-specific focus. Here we show that the most abundant 3'UTR for the zebrafish fgf8a gene in the developing embryo mediates a strong translational repression, when compared to a more sparsely used alternative 3'UTR, which supports a higher translational efficiency. By inducing a shift in the selection efficiency of the associated polyadenylation sites, we show a temporally and spatially specific impact of fgf8a 3'UTR usage on embryogenesis, in particular at late stages during sensory system development. In addition, we identified a previously undescribed role for Fgf signalling in the initial stages of superficial retinal vascularization. These results reveal a critical functional importance of gene-specific alternative 3'UTRs in vertebrate embryonic development.

Identification of Dmrt2a downstream genes during zebrafish early development using a timely controlled approach.

BACKGROUND: Dmrt2a is a zinc finger like transcription factor with several roles during zebrafish early development: left-right asymmetry, synchronisation of the somite clock genes and fast muscle differentiation. Despite the described functions, Dmrt2a mechanism of action is unknown. Therefore, with this work, we propose to identify Dmrt2a downstream genes during zebrafish early development. RESULTS: We generated and validated a heat-shock inducible transgenic line, to timely control dmrt2a overexpression, and dmrt2a mutant lines. We characterised dmrt2a overexpression phenotype and verified that it was very similar to the one described after knockdown of this gene, with left-right asymmetry defects and desynchronisation of somite clock genes. Additionally, we identified a new phenotype of somite border malformation. We generated several dmrt2a mutant lines, but we only detected a weak to negligible phenotype. As dmrt2a has a paralog gene, dmrt2b, with similar functions and expression pattern, we evaluated the possibility of redundancy. We found that dmrt2b does not seem to compensate the lack of dmrt2a. Furthermore, we took advantage of one of our mutant lines to confirm dmrt2a morpholino specificity, which was previously shown to be a robust knockdown tool in two independent studies. Using the described genetic tools to perform and validate a microarray, we were able to identify six genes downstream of Dmrt2a: foxj1b, pxdc1b, cxcl12b, etv2, foxc1b and cyp1a. CONCLUSIONS: In this work, we generated and validated several genetic tools for dmrt2a and identified six genes downstream of this transcription factor. The identified genes will be crucial to the future understanding of Dmrt2a mechanism of action in zebrafish.

Foxj1a is expressed in ependymal precursors, controls central canal position and is activated in new ependymal cells during regeneration in zebrafish.

Zebrafish are able to regenerate the spinal cord and recover motor and sensory functions upon severe injury, through the activation of cells located at the ependymal canal. Here, we show that cells surrounding the ependymal canal in the adult zebrafish spinal cord express Foxj1a. We demonstrate that ependymal cells express Foxj1a from their birth in the embryonic neural tube and that Foxj1a activity is required for the final positioning of the ependymal canal. We also show that in response to spinal cord injury, Foxj1a ependymal cells actively proliferate and contribute to the restoration of the spinal cord structure. Finally, this study reveals that Foxj1a expression in the injured spinal cord is regulated by regulatory elements activated during regeneration. These data establish Foxj1a as a pan-ependymal marker in development, homeostasis and regeneration and may help identify the signals that enable this progenitor population to replace lost cells after spinal cord injury.

Notch/Her12 signalling modulates, motile/immotile cilia ratio downstream of Foxj1a in zebrafish left-right organizer.

Foxj1a is necessary and sufficient to specify motile cilia. Using transcriptional studies and slow-scan two-photon live imaging capable of identifying the number of motile and immotile cilia, we now established that the final number of motile cilia depends on Notch signalling (NS). We found that despite all left-right organizer (LRO) cells express foxj1a and the ciliary axonemes of these cells have dynein arms, some cilia remain immotile. We identified that this decision is taken early in development in the Kupffer's Vesicle (KV) precursors the readout being her12 transcription. We demonstrate that overexpression of either her12 or Notch intracellular domain (NICD) increases the number of immotile cilia at the expense of motile cilia, and leads to an accumulation of immotile cilia at the anterior half of the KV. This disrupts the normal fluid flow intensity and pattern, with consequent impact on dand5 expression pattern and left-right (L-R) axis establishment.

Gold Nanobeacons for Tracking Gene Silencing in Zebrafish.

The use of gold nanoparticles for effective gene silencing has demonstrated its potential as a tool for gene expression experiments and for the treatment of several diseases. Here, we used a gold nanobeacon designed to specifically silence the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) mRNA in embryos of a fli-EGFP transgenic zebrafish line, while simultaneously allowing the tracking and localization of the silencing events via the beacon's emission. Fluorescence imaging measurements demonstrated a decrease of the EGFP emission with a concomitant increase in the fluorescence of the Au-nanobeacon. Furthermore, microinjection of the Au-nanobeacon led to a negligible difference in mortality and malformations in comparison to the free oligonucleotide, indicating that this system is a biocompatible platform for the administration of gene silencing moieties. Together, these data illustrate the potential of Au-nanobeacons as tools for in vivo zebrafish gene modulation with low toxicity which may be used towards any gene of interest.

Report of the 4th European Zebrafish Principal Investigator Meeting.

The European Zebrafish Principal Investigator Meeting (EZPM) is an ideal forum for group leaders using this fantastic animal model not only to discuss science but also to strengthen their interactions, to push forward technological advances, and to define guidelines for the use of this fish in research. The city of Lisbon (Portugal) was voted by the European group leaders to be the setting for the 4th EZPM, and the organizing committee, composed by Leonor Saúde (iMM Lisboa, PT), Susana Lopes (CEDOC, PT), Michael Orger (Champalimaud Foundation, PT), Rui Oliveira (ISPA, PT), and António Jacinto (CEDOC, PT), was very enthusiastic to organize a productive event. The 4th EZPM took place from March 15 to 19 at Pavilhão do Conhecimento, a Science Museum and Educational Center winner of The Great Prize FAD of Arquitecture 1999 and The Society for Environmental Graphic Design Award 2011. Over 5 days, 135 group leaders (89 men and 46 women) coming from 19 different European countries and also from the United States, Turkey, Israel, Chile, and Singapore presented and discussed their recent research achievements. In addition to the scientific oral and poster presentations, the group leaders gathered in very lively community sessions on morphants versus mutants (chaired by Didier Stainier, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, DE), funding issues (chaired by Uwe Strahle, KIT-ITG, DE), and gender equality (chaired by Corinne Houart, KCL, United Kingdom). One of the highlights of the 4th EZPM was the guided visit to Oceanário de Lisboa, an international award-winning place that celebrates life with a stunning display of living aquatic creatures.

N-cadherin locks left-right asymmetry by ending the leftward movement of Hensen's node cells.

The stereotypic left-right (LR) asymmetric distribution of internal organs is due to an asymmetric molecular cascade in the lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) that is originated at the embryonic node. In chicken embryos, molecular asymmetries at Hensen's node are created by leftward cell movements that occur transiently. What terminates these movements, and, moreover, what is the impact of prolonging them on the LR asymmetry cascade? We show that leftward movements last longer when N-cadherin function is blocked and cease prematurely when N-cadherin is overexpressed on the right side of the node. The prolonged leftward movements lead to loss of asymmetric expression of fgf8 and nodal at the node region. This originates an abnormal expression of the asymmetric genes cer1 and snai1 in the LPM, resulting in mispositioned hearts. We conclude that N-cadherin stops the leftward cell movements and that this termination is an essential step in the establishment of LR asymmetry.