Neutrophil motility in vivo using zebrafish

Abstract

Zebrafish have emerged as a powerful model organism to study neutrophil chemotaxis and inflammation in vivo. Studies of neutrophil chemotaxis in animal models have previously been hampered both by the limited number of specimens available for analysis and by the need for invasive procedures to perform intravital microscopy. Due to the transparency and cell permeability of zebrafish embryos these limitations are circumvented, and the zebrafish system is amenable to both live time-lapse imaging of neutrophil chemotaxis and for screening of the effects of chemical compounds on the inflammatory response in vivo. Here, we describe methods to analyze neutrophil-directed migration toward wounds using both fixed embryos by myeloperoxidase activity assay, and live embryos by time-lapse microscopy. Further, methods are described for the evaluation of the effects of chemical compounds on neutrophil motility and the innate immune responses in zebrafish embryos.