DanioScope

Zebrafish develop quickly: within a matter of hours internal organs start to show. Also, movements such as tail flicks, coilings, and convulsive behavior start as early as 17 hours after fertilization. These behaviors are of interest especially in toxicological studies and pharmacology, as they reflect the development of the nervous system. Additionally, these readouts are highly susceptible to pharmacological manipulation.

DanioScope non-invasively measures these behaviors – simply use a video of one or more zebrafish embryos. DanioScope automatically recognizes each embryo (within their chorion). Then it measures their activity. If floating occurs you can simply adjust the location of the measurements during the experiment. DanioScope reports back the following parameters:

• Burst activity – percentage of time (from total measurement duration) the embryo was moving
• Inactivity – percentage of time of inactivity (100% - burst activity).
• Burst duration – total time spent active (sum of all movement durations)
• Inactivity duration – total time spent inactive
• Burst count – number of times the embryo moved
• Burst count / per minute – number of movements per minute

Compared to manually counting activity bursts, DanioScope can save you 75% experiment time (based on beta testing by Dr. J.P. Cambero at Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, www.isciii.es).

The heart is the first organ to develop in zebrafish, and development is similar to the human heart, both good reasons for zebrafish to be an interesting model in cardiology research.

The zebrafish cardiac system is assessed by measuring the heart rate or inter-beat interval. Traditional methods include manual counting (using a stopwatch), using a micro pressure system, Laser Doppler microscopy, or electrocardiograms. These methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and require specific training to perform.

Video based assessment of heart rate and inter-beat intervals is far less labor intensive. After indicating the heart area in the video imported in DanioScope, it automatically calculates the number of beats per second (BPS) and beats per minute (BPM).

This method can save you up to half the time compared to manual methods (based on beta testing by Dr. J.P. Cambero at Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, www.isciii.es).

• Fuad, N.M.; Kaslin, J.; Wlodkowic, D. (2018). Lab-on-a-Chip imaging micro-echocardiography (imEC) for rapid assessment of cardiovascular activity in zebrafish research. Sensors and Actuators B:Chemical, 256, 1131-1141.
• Hasenbein, S.; Poynton, H.; Connon, R.E. (2018). Contaminant exposure effects in a changing climate: how multiple stressors can multiply exposure effects in the amphipod Hyalella azteca. (2018). Exotoxicology, doi:10.1007/s10646-018-1912-x
• Huang, Y.; Cartlidge, R.; MilangaWalpitagama, M.; Kaslin, J.; Campana, O.; Wlodkowic, D. (2018). Unsuitable use of DMSO for assessing behavioral endpoints in aquatic model species. Science of the Total Environment, 615, 10-114.