Zebrafish As a Promising Experimental Model of Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) involves multiple types of physical brain lesions. TBI is a highly heterogeneous clinical condition whose symptoms include cognitive, motor and emotional deficits, as well as neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. TBI modeling in animals plays a key role in studying its pathogenetic mechanisms and temporal dynamics, as well as developing new drugs for its treatment. Recently, the use of the zebrafish Danio rerio as a model organism has aroused the growing interest of translational neurobiology. Zebrafish are now the second most demanded laboratory animal species in biomedicine, after mice. Here, we discuss the prospects of using this teleost fish as a model of TBI, as well as new research trends in this area. We also emphasize the importance of zebrafish as a highly translational model for studying the molecular mechanisms and neurological disorders in TBI, as well as screening for potential therapeutic agents.