[Zebrafish--useful model for pharmacodynamics and toxicity screening of traditional Chinese medicine]

Zebrafish has been an important model for developmental and genetic studies. In the past ten years, it has also been widely used for environmental toxicity monitoring, additive effect and toxicity of many chemical materials including heavy metals, pesticides, halogenated aromatic hydrocarbon compounds and other carcinogens. Zebrafish is increasingly used in drug screening and toxicological studies in recent years with the advantage of high-throughput handling. It is a useful model of choice for in vivo pharmacodynamic screening and toxicity investigation of Chinese medicine and it has a wide application prospect in the field of new herbal-drug research.