Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2023
Höfundar / Authors: Íris Ósk Halldórsdóttir, Abbi Elise Smith and Sara Sigurbjörnsdóttir.
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. Háskóli Íslands
Kynnir / Presenter: Íris Ósk Halldórsdóttir
Musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of disability in the world and affect roughly 1.71 billion people with over 150 different disorders. In articular cartilage, chondrocytes are the only cell type, and in cases of osteoarthritis, these cells have been associated with a more hypertrophic morphology. Although rare, cancer can arise in the articular cartilage, and one such form is chondrosarcoma, which is a primary bone cancer associated with a high morbidity rate. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) can be used to study these musculoskeletal disorders as they are estimated to share over 80% of known disease-causing genes in humans. Utilizing animal research models such as the zebrafish enables researchers to study disorders in vivo, which can bring new and better understanding of their underlying mechanisms and functions.
Generating a transgenic zebrafish line with fluorescently labelled chondrocytes could provide the opportunity to track the phenotype of chondrocyte cells over time. This fish line could then be used for advancing research on osteoarthritis. Zebrafish could also be used to track metastatic potential and tumor progression of chondrosarcoma cells. Fluorescently labelled cells would be implanted into zebrafish embryos where tumor growth, metastasis and other molecular tumor-markers would be studied.