Advantage of Using Zebra Fish as A Model In Toxicity Testing

1) De Esch et al. (2012) said that the exposure of the zebrafish towards toxic substances
through simple diffusion gives a great advantage on using them for the tests as they
readily absorb compounds from the water in which they swim. Therefore, it is easy to
induce any toxic substance to the model without having to strain them in order to give the
drugs. However, according to (Alderton & Berghmans, 2006), zebrafish are tolerant
towards dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a drug which has the ability to pass through
membrane easily (Muir, 1996). This is a good characteristic as a substance like DMSO
may be diffused too much in the organism that it can affect the result of the real substance
that we want to test.

2) Another advantage of zebrafish over other animals is that they can survive although there
are some malformations or organ loss during the embryonic period (De Esch et al., 2012).
This means that the zebrafish can be studied during the embryonic period easily, in
addition with the their transparency which makes it even easier to study the teratogenicity
of any substance of interest.
3) Zebrafish also has a number of highly similar structures to the human parts such as some
parts of their Central Nervous System. Hypothalamus, optic tracts, olfactory system,
spinal cord and cranial nerves shows structural homology to the areas of human brain
while the other parts show differences.
4) There are also studies that show similar heart characteristics of the zebrafish and higher
vertebrates (Ma et. al, 2003; Hill et al, 2005). Even their apoptotic processes also are
similar to the mammals (De Esch et al., 2012). These similarities of zebrafish that they
have with the human gives great advantage for the zebrafish to be used as toxicology
model as we cannot test directly the toxic substance on human. Therefore, using a model
which possess similar characteristics can resemble the organs and systems of human
ourselves.

5) Following their small size, zebrafish can then be housed in small space, which is a very
great advantage as we do not need to have a very big space in order to keep them. (De
Esch et al., 2012; Hill et al, 2005).

6) Many testing techniques can be used on zebrafish, including the underdeveloped

zebrafish, such as transgenesis and gene knock-down (Ma et al. 2003). This is a very
good advantage as we can alter the genes of the zebrafish to make it a model of human
with a particular disease, as some diseases are due to fault or mutations in the genes.
7) Last but not least, the zebrafish do not have specific season to mate, or in other words, the
mating is not seasonal (De Esch et al. (2012). This provides continuity to the
reproduction of the offspring, which gives benefits for us to continue the tests without
having to hinder our work to certain period of time (Spitsbergen & Kent, 2003).
REFERENCES
Zebrafish - an in vivo model for drug screening Chaoyang Ma, Chuenlei, Wen Lin Seng,
Chaojie Zhang, Catherine Willett and Patricia McGrath Phylonix. Pharmaceuticals Inc
(September 2003)
DMSO: Many Uses, Much Controversy . Maya Muir Alternative & Complementary Therapies,
July/August 1996, pages 230-235.

Adrian J. Hill, Hiroki Teraoka, Warren Heideman, and Richard E. Peterson, REVIEW: Zebrash
as a Model Vertebrate for Investigating Chemical Toxic
Celine de Esch 1 , Roderick Slieker 2 , Andr Wolterbeek, Ruud Woutersen, Didima de Groot,
Zebra sh as potential model for developmental neurotoxicity testing, A mini review,
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 34 (2012) 545 553
Jan M. Spitsbergen and Michael L. Kent, The State of the Art of the Zebrafish Model for
Toxicology and Toxicologic Pathology ResearchAdvantages and Current Limitations, Toxicol
Pathol. 2007 Jul 5. Published in final edited form as: Toxicol Pathol. 2003; 31(Suppl): 6287.

Points yang dah disebut oleh Farrah.

Another advantage of using zebrafish for toxicity testing is from the number of offspring
production. They can easily produce high numbers of offspring, which makes it easier to re-do
the test on the zebrafish models. (same dgn high fecundity)

Besides that, zebrafish also have translucent appearance during embryonic and larval
development, which is a very good feature as researchers can spot the organs targeted during the
toxicity test, transparency made it easy for visualization of internal organs. (mcm sama dgn
optical clarity je..)

Zebrafishes also develop their organs such as brain, heart, liver, kidney, bones, muscles and
sensory systems in quite a fast rate, which is only 5 days post fertilization. This rapid
development gives advantage for the researches in working on and their toxicity testing and has a
less period for finishing the tests. (sama dgn rapid maturation)