Zebrafish in Acute Kidney Disease

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) serves as a powerful tool to understand Acute Kidney Disease (AKI). Zebrafish models have been used to mimic clinical manifestations of renal failure, but they lack in specific structures for understanding the overall development. In this review, we tried to understand the development of the renal system, the genes related to the progression of AKI and its recovery in zebrafish. HNF-1 also known as hepatocyte nuclear factor is a gene which can alter the renal disease by managing several genes responsible for the pathogenesis of the disease. ATF3 or Activating Transcription Factor is also considered a potential therapeutic target. Zebrafish have a pair of ambiguous genes namely, wt1a and wt1b, which take part in regeneration of nephrons. Various drugs such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, anti-hypertensive drugs such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and aminoglycoside antibiotics have been discussed upon as models for AKI in zebrafish. Various biomarkers such as Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and other related biomarkers of kidney damage have been briefly mentioned. Zebrafish is a potential experimental model which can be extensively used to study human inherited diseases due to its fecundity, rapid development, optical transparency, and accessibility to genetic manipulation tools.