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. Overall design: 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