Although in vitro studies have laid many foundations for our biochemical understanding of digestive organ physiology, they have not replicated the complex interplay of neural, chemical, hormonal, and environmental cues that regulate digestive organ physiology in vivo. Historically, living cells have often been cultured on artificial surfaces, but this lacked input from neighboring cells and tissues (i.e., the cellular microenvironment). These limitations can be overcome by using zebrafish as a complete animal system.
The study of digestive organs in zebrafish began with early large-scale genetic screening, and several researchers have clearly demonstrated the utility of the zebrafish system in studying the development and physiology of the digestive system through genetic and chemical screening. Studies have shown that many features of fatty liver disease (which in humans are often caused by metabolic syndrome or alcoholism) are similar in zebrafish, and the pathology of zebrafish with digestive disorders often reflects human disease, so zebrafish have become an outstanding system for the study of hepatobiliary, gastrointestinal and pancreatic diseases.
Creative Biogene provides a high-throughput method for predicting mammalian gastrointestinal safety issues using larval zebrafish. Our improved zebrafish gut motility imaging and gut transit time measurement methods enable higher sensitivity and throughput for toxicology. For gut function, our zebrafish assays have the potential to predict adverse drug effects and support their possible role in the early safety assessment of new compounds.
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