Zebrafish blood disease models and applications.

Abstract

Hematopoiesis is a complex, orderly and conserved developmental process, coordinated by multiple factors including transcription factors and signaling pathways. Dysregulation of any of these factors may cause developmental or functional defects in the blood system, leading to the pathogenesis of blood diseases. Zebrafish hematopoiesis and the underlying molecular mechanisms are highly conserved with those in mammals. The use of zebrafish to recapitulate abnormal changes in pathogenic factors can build models of related blood diseases, thus providing powerful tools for exploring the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and progression, visualization of tumorigenesis and high-throughput chemical screening. In this review, we summarize the zebrafish models of blood diseases and their applications. These disease models not only help to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of the blood system and the molecular mechanisms on pathogeneses of blood diseases, but also provide new ideas for the treatment of clinically relevant hematological malignancies.