In vivo imaging of hematopoietic stem cell development in the zebrafish

In vivo imaging is crucial for developmental biology and can further help to follow cell development/ differentiation in normal and pathological conditions. Recent advances in optical imaging techniques has facilitated tracing of the developmental dynamics of a specific organ, tissue, or even a single cell. The zebrafish is an excellent model for imaging of hematopoiesis due to its transparent embryo at early stage; moreover, different zebrafish hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transgenic lines have been demonstrated as very useful tools for illustrating the details of the HSC developmental process. In this review, we summarize recent studies related to the non-invasive in vivo imaging of HSC transgenics, to show that zebrafish transgenic lines are powerful tools for developmental biology and disease. At the end of the review, the perspective and some open questions in this field will be discussed.