Abstract—This study aimed to develop a larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) thrombosis model for antiplatelet drug discovery by adopting CD41-eGFP (yst101) transgenic zebrafish. In this model, the thrombocytes expressed the enhanced green fluorescent protein driven by the zebrafish CD41 promoter. Briefly, fish at 2 days post-fertilization (dpf) were treated with ponatinib for 24 h by direct soaking, resulting in the caudal vein thrombus. The transparent larvae were used, and the thrombi were clearly observed and quantitatively evaluated by the image analysis of the red blood cells stained with o-dianisidine in the caudal vein. Meanwhile, thrombocyte aggregation was also observed at the site of the caudal vein by confocal microscopy. In addition, the thrombosis-preventive effects of aspirin and tirofiban, both FDA -approved antiplatelet drugs, were demonstrated and validated. However, clopidogrel, the other human antithrombotic drug, was found to have no or little antithrombotic effect on this zebrafish-based thrombosis model, which might be due to a hepatic metabolic defect of the transgenic line used in this study.

Index Terms—thrombosis, zebrafish, CD41-eGFP, antiplatelet drugs

Cite:Yanjun Jiang, Ye Rong, Ruixue Wu, Yi Wen, and Liu Hu, "A Zebrafish Thrombosis Model for Assessing Antiplatelet Drugs," International Journal of Pharma Medicine and Biological Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 38-42, January 2020. doi: 10.18178/ijpmbs.9.1.38-42

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.