Zebrafish as a Model for the Study of Gut Microbiome

Abstract

Zebrafish as a vertebrate model have contributed to elucidating the functions of important factors involved in development, metabolism, and various diseases that are shared among human and animals. Zebrafish have also attracted attention as a gut microbiota model and have been studied for host-microbe interaction using diverse approaches, which involve host immune, metabolic, and behavioral responses to specific microbes. Using zebrafish as disease models for diabetes and pathogen infection models has been especially valuable for the elucidation of important factors as candidate targets for pharmaceutical development. Zebrafish offer unique advantages over mammalian models as a gut microbiota model because their transparency enables live imaging of individual microbes and immune cells within the host. Rearing zebrafish and setting up experiments for microbiome research entail consideration of aquatic-specific factors that may significantly impact the microbiota. Although fish are not considered as experimental animals in Japan, the handling of fish with ethical consideration is required, due to the international trend toward the awareness of animal welfare including fish. In this review, we provide an overview of zebrafish as an experimental animal model and summarize recent important studies using zebrafish as a host of microbes. We then discuss perspectives on zebrafish research as an alternative animal model and international ethical differences in handling fish, and review the applicability and prospect of fish models for microbiome research.