Functional alterations and transcriptomic changes during zebrafish cardiac aging

• DOI: 10.1007/s10522-020-09881-z
• Publication Date: 2020-05-05T18:02:53Z
• Authors: Xuelian Shao; Yu Fu; Jinmin Ma; Xueyu Li; Chenqi Lu; Ruilin Zhang
• Keywords: Inflammation; 0301 basic medicine; Aging; 03 medical and health sciences; Models, Animal; Animals; Heart; Transcriptome; Mitochondria, Heart; Zebrafish; DNA Damage

Aging dramatically increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases in human. Animal models are of great value to study cardiac aging, and zebrafish have become a popular model for aging study recently. However, there is limited knowledge about the progression and regulation of cardiac aging in zebrafish. In this study we first validated the effectiveness of a panel of aging-related markers and revealed their spatial-temporal specificity. Using these markers, we discovered that cardiac aging in zebrafish initiated at mid-age around 24 months, followed by a gradual progression marked with increased DNA damage, inflammatory response and reduced mitochondrial function. Furthermore, we showed aging-related expression profile change in zebrafish hearts was similar to that in rat hearts. Overall, our results provide a deeper insight into the cardiac aging process in zebrafish, which will set up foundation for generating novel cardiac aging models suitable for large scale screening of pharmaceutical targets.