Histopathological assessment of laterality defects in zebrafish development

Laterality defects during embryonic development underlie the aetiology of various clinical symptoms of neuropathological and cardiovascular disorders; however, experimental approaches to understand the underlying mechanisms are limited due to the complex organ systems of vertebrate models. Zebrafish have the ability to survive even when the heart stops beating for a while during early embryonic development and those adults with cardiac abnormalities. Therefore, we induced laterality defects and investigated the occurrence of situs solitus, situs inversus, and situs ambiguus in zebrafish development. Histopathological analysis revealed heterotaxy in both embryos and juvenile fish. Additionally, randomization of left-right asymmetry of the brain and heart in individual zebrafish embryos under artificial experimental pressure further demonstrated the advantage of transparent zebrafish embryos as an experimental tool to select or reduce the embryos with laterality defects during early embryonic development for long-term studies, including behavioural and cognitive neuroscience investigations.