Differential Roles of Diet on Development and Spinal Cord Regeneration in Larval Zebrafish

The zebrafish is a powerful model organism for studying development and regeneration. However, there is a lack of a standardized reference diet for developmental and regeneration experiments. Most studies evaluate the rate of growth, survival, and fecundity. In this study, we compare three diets and their effects on growth and regeneration after a spinal cord injury (SCI). Fish were fed daily for 1 week with daily measurements of overall length and width of spinal injury. Fish fed a live rotifer diet grew 32%, whereas a commercially available diet only led to a 4% increase in body length. Similarly, differences in rate of regeneration were observed with over 80% of rotifer-fed larvae forming a glial bridge after injury compared to <10% of zebrafish fed with the commercial diet. Our data highlight the need for establishing a standardized diet for regeneration studies to improve research reproducibility.