Giacich Michela, Marchese Maria, Damiani Devid, Santorelli Filippo Maria, Naef Valentina
Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Calambrone, 56128 Pisa, Italy.
Biology (Basel). 2025 Jul 24;14(8):934. doi: 10.3390/biology14080934.
Early diagnosis is critical for the effective management of neurodegenerative disorders, and retinal alterations have emerged as promising early biomarkers due to the retina's close developmental and functional link to the brain. The zebrafish (Danio rerio), with its rapid development, transparent embryos, and evolutionarily conserved visual system, represents a powerful and versatile model for studying retinal degeneration. This review discusses a range of behavioral assays-including visual adaptation, motion detection, and color discrimination-that are employed to evaluate retinal function in zebrafish. These methods enable the detection of subtle visual deficits that may precede overt anatomical damage, providing a non-invasive, efficient strategy for early diagnosis and high-throughput drug screening. Importantly, these behavioral tests also serve as sensitive functional readouts to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological treatments over time. Compared to traditional murine models, zebrafish offer advantages such as lower maintenance costs, faster development, optical transparency for live imaging, and ethical benefits due to reduced use of higher vertebrates. However, variability in experimental protocols highlights the need for standardization to ensure reliability and reproducibility.
早期诊断对于神经退行性疾病的有效管理至关重要，由于视网膜与大脑在发育和功能上紧密相连，视网膜改变已成为有前景的早期生物标志物。斑马鱼（Danio rerio）具有发育迅速、胚胎透明以及视觉系统进化保守等特点，是研究视网膜变性的强大且通用的模型。本综述讨论了一系列行为学检测方法，包括视觉适应、运动检测和颜色辨别，这些方法用于评估斑马鱼的视网膜功能。这些方法能够检测出在明显的解剖学损伤之前可能出现的细微视觉缺陷，为早期诊断和高通量药物筛选提供了一种非侵入性、高效的策略。重要的是，这些行为测试还可作为敏感的功能读数，以评估长期药物治疗的效果。与传统的小鼠模型相比，斑马鱼具有维护成本低、发育更快、活体成像具有光学透明性以及因减少高等脊椎动物使用而带来的伦理优势等优点。然而，实验方案的变异性凸显了标准化的必要性，以确保可靠性和可重复性。
