Systolic and diastolic ventricular function in zebrafish embryos: Influence of norepenephrine,MS-222 and temperature

Background  

Zebrafish are increasingly used to study the influences of gene mutation and manipulation on cardiac development, structure and function. In this study, a video edge detection system was used to characterise, continuously, cardiac ventricle function in 2–5 days old zebrafish embryos embedded in 0.6% agar and examined under light microscopy at room temperature (22°C). Using video edge detection software (IonOptix Inc), the motion of a small region of the cardiac ventricle wall was converted to a continuous chart trace allowing analysis of wall motion amplitude (WMA) and myocardial wall velocity during systole (MWVs) and diastole (MWVd).