Mechanical spinal cord transection in larval zebrafish and subsequent whole-mount histological processing

Zebrafish regenerate their spinal cord after injury, both at larval and adult stages. Larval zebrafish have emerged as a powerful model system to study spinal cord injury and regeneration due to their high optical transparency for in vivo imaging, amenability to high-throughput analysis, and rapid regeneration time. Here, we describe a protocol for the mechanical transection of the larval zebrafish spinal cord, followed by whole-mount tissue processing for in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry to elucidate principles of regeneration. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wehner et al. (2017) and Tsata et al. (2021).