Title :
Effects of simulated-microgravity on development and p53 gene expression of zebrafish embryos
Author :
Hang, Xiaoming ; Li, Hui ; Ma, Wenwen ; Sun, Yeqing
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Environ. Syst. Biol., Dalian Maritime Univ., Dalian, China
Abstract :
Microgravity can induce a serial of physiological and pathological changes in human body. The mechanism of microgravity-induced bio-effects is one of the most important issues in space studies and still remains unclear. In this research, zebrafish embryo, a powerful model for studying vertebrate development, was exposed to a NASA-designed rotary cell culture system (RCCS) to investigate the effects of simulated-microgravity on development and gene expression. Parameters for development, such as malformation rate, mortality rate, heart rate and body length, as well as p53 gene expression were examined between RCCS-exposed zebrafish embryos and their synchronized controls. The malformation rate, heart rate and body length were all found increased, while no significant change was found on mortality rate after simulated-microgravity exposure. A significant decrease of p53 gene expression was found in 60hpf (hour past fertilization) zebrafish embryos after a 36h simulated-microgravity exposure from 24hpf. Together, our data presented here illustrate that zebrafish embryo can be significantly induced by microgravity on development and gene expression and therefore could be a powerful vertebrate development model for further mechanism study on simulated microgravity.
Keywords :
aerospace biophysics; cardiology; cellular biophysics; genetics; molecular biophysics; zero gravity experiments; body length; heart rate; malformation rate; microgravity effects; mortality rate; p53 gene expression; pathological changes; physiological changes; rotary cell culture system; time 36 h; vertebrate development; zebrafish embryos; Acceleration; Animals; Biological system modeling; Embryo; Gene expression; Gravity; Heart rate; Danio rerio; development; p53; simulated-microgravity;
Conference_Titel :
Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering (RSETE), 2011 International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Nanjing
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-9172-8
DOI :
10.1109/RSETE.2011.5964081