Studying leukocyte trafficking in zebrafish larvae

Live imaging of random neutrophil migration in intact zebrafish larvae using spinning-disk confocal fluorescence microscopy (neutrophils in red and endothelial cells in green).

Zebrafish larvae have been established as new model to study leukocyte trafficking in vivo by project A02 (PIs Daniela Maier-Begandt and Barbara Walzog). This technique enables live imaging of leukocytes in vivo in the intact organism. Due to the optic transparency of zebrafish larvae, genetically labelled leukocytes can easily be imaged and individually tracked using spinning-disk confocal fluorescence microscopy provided by project Z03. The present study demonstrates the functional importance of CD18 for neutrophil trafficking in zebrafish larvae, thereby shedding new light on neutrophil biology in vertebrates and introducing a new model organism to study leukocyte adhesion deficiency type I.

Principal investigator Daniela Maier-Begandt (l) with coworkers and first authors Almke Bader (r)

and Jincheng Gao (m)

Publication:

Bader A, Gao J, Rivière T, Schmid B, Walzog B, Maier-Begandt D. Molecular Insights Into Neutrophil Biology From the Zebrafish Perspective: Lessons From CD18 Deficiency. Front Immunol, 2021, 12: 677994. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.677994.

Contact:

Dr. Daniela Maier-Begandt
Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathophysiology
Walter-Brendel-Center for Experimental Medicine
Biomedical Center
LMU München
Großhaderner Str. 9
D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried
+49 (0)89 2180-71519
daniela.maier@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Dr. Almke Bader
Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathophysiology
Walter-Brendel-Center for Experimental Medicine
Biomedical Center
LMU München
Großhaderner Str. 9
D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried
+49 (0)89 2180-71519
almke.bader@med.uni-muenchen.de