Early Life Stage Assays in Zebrafish

Abstract

Fish embryo toxicity (FET) test using zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been established as an alternative assay to animal experimentation. The FET assay enables the assessment of multiple morphological endpoints during the development of zebrafish early life stages, showing high impact to the field of ecotoxicology on risk assessment of chemicals and pollutants. Moreover, it is also applied to screening drug-induced toxicity and human diseases, due to the high genetic and physiological orthology between zebrafish and humans. Here, we describe FET test, with all steps and several adaptations involved in the methodological procedures. To demonstrate the efficiency of this method, results using the reference substance 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA) were included to demonstrate sublethal and teratogenic malformations on zebrafish embryos. Thus, there is a strong tendency for using FET tests as a replacement strategy of traditional tests in toxicology and ecotoxicology.