Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1HH, United Kingdom.
Neuromuscul Disord. 2012 Aug;22(8):673-84. doi: 10.1016/j.nmd.2012.04.007. Epub 2012 May 28.
Animal models in biomedical research are important for understanding the pathological mechanisms of human diseases at a molecular and cellular level. Several aspects of mammalian animals, however, may limit their use in modelling neuromuscular disorders. Many attributes of zebrafish (Danio rerio) are complementary to mammalian experimental systems, establishing the zebrafish as a powerful model organism in disease biology. This review focuses on a number of key studies using the zebrafish to model hereditary muscle diseases with additional emphasis on recent advances in zebrafish functional genomics and drug discovery. Increasing research in zebrafish disease models, combined with knowledge from mammalian models, will bring novel insights into the disease pathogenesis of neuromuscular disorders, as well as facilitate the development of effective therapeutic strategies.
动物模型在生物医学研究中非常重要，它们可以帮助我们从分子和细胞层面理解人类疾病的病理机制。然而，哺乳动物动物的几个方面可能限制了它们在神经肌肉疾病建模中的应用。斑马鱼（Danio rerio）的许多特性与哺乳动物实验系统互补，使其成为疾病生物学中的有力模型生物。本文重点介绍了一些利用斑马鱼模型遗传性肌肉疾病的关键研究，此外还特别强调了斑马鱼功能基因组学和药物发现方面的最新进展。随着对斑马鱼疾病模型研究的不断增加，结合来自哺乳动物模型的知识，将为神经肌肉疾病的发病机制带来新的见解，并有助于开发有效的治疗策略。
