The zebrafish heart harbors a thermogenic beige fat depot analog of human epicardial adipose tissue

The main goal of this study was to examine the presence and specific transcriptomic profile of epicardial adipose tissue (eAT) in zebrafish. We assessed how cold treatment affects the epicardial adipose tissue. Additional we provided some key differences between human, mouse and zebrafish epicardial adipose tissue. We compared the transcriptomes of zebrafish eAT (epicardial adipose tissue) and vAT (visceral adipose tissue) using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) from adult female zebrafish. Adult zebrafish were acclimated from 27°C (control temperature) to 18°C by gradual reduction of tank water at the rate of 1°C/h with an external water chiller. Cold-acclimated fish were maintained at 18±1°C for 24h, while control fish were maintained at 27±1°C. Hearts were isolated to harvest eAT for RNA sequencing本研究旨在探究斑马鱼心外膜脂肪组织（epicardial adipose tissue, eAT）的存在情况及其特异性转录组谱。我们评估了低温处理对斑马鱼心外膜脂肪组织的影响。此外，本研究还对比了人类、小鼠与斑马鱼心外膜脂肪组织的关键差异。我们通过对成年雌性斑马鱼开展RNA测序（RNA sequencing, RNA-Seq），比较了斑马鱼心外膜脂肪组织（eAT）与内脏脂肪组织（visceral adipose tissue, vAT）的转录组差异。实验过程中，成年斑马鱼通过外置冷水机以1℃/小时的速率逐步降低水槽水温，从27℃（对照温度）驯化至18℃。低温驯化组斑马鱼在18±1℃环境下维持24小时，而对照组斑马鱼则维持在27±1℃环境中。我们分离心脏以获取心外膜脂肪组织用于RNA测序。