TY - JOUR

T1 - Making It New Again

T2 - Insight Into Liver Development, Regeneration, and Disease From Zebrafish Research

AU - Wang, Shuang

AU - Miller, Sophie R

AU - Ober, Elke A

AU - Sadler, Kirsten C

N1 - © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - The adult liver of most vertebrates is predominantly comprised of hepatocytes. However, these cells must work in concert with biliary, stellate, vascular, and immune cells to accomplish the vast array of hepatic functions required for physiological homeostasis. Our understanding of liver development was accelerated as zebrafish emerged as an ideal vertebrate system to study embryogenesis. Through work in zebrafish and other models, it is now clear that the cells in the liver develop in a coordinated fashion during embryogenesis through a complex yet incompletely understood set of molecular guidelines. Zebrafish research has uncovered many key players that govern the acquisition of hepatic potential, cell fate, and plasticity. Although rare, some hepatobiliary diseases-especially biliary atresia-are caused by developmental defects; we discuss how research using zebrafish to study liver development has informed our understanding of and approaches to liver disease. The liver can be injured in response to an array of stressors including viral, mechanical/surgical, toxin-induced, immune-mediated, or inborn defects in metabolism. The liver has thus evolved the capacity to efficiently repair and regenerate. We discuss the emerging field of using zebrafish to study liver regeneration and highlight recent advances where zebrafish genetics and imaging approaches have provided novel insights into how cell plasticity contributes to liver regeneration.

AB - The adult liver of most vertebrates is predominantly comprised of hepatocytes. However, these cells must work in concert with biliary, stellate, vascular, and immune cells to accomplish the vast array of hepatic functions required for physiological homeostasis. Our understanding of liver development was accelerated as zebrafish emerged as an ideal vertebrate system to study embryogenesis. Through work in zebrafish and other models, it is now clear that the cells in the liver develop in a coordinated fashion during embryogenesis through a complex yet incompletely understood set of molecular guidelines. Zebrafish research has uncovered many key players that govern the acquisition of hepatic potential, cell fate, and plasticity. Although rare, some hepatobiliary diseases-especially biliary atresia-are caused by developmental defects; we discuss how research using zebrafish to study liver development has informed our understanding of and approaches to liver disease. The liver can be injured in response to an array of stressors including viral, mechanical/surgical, toxin-induced, immune-mediated, or inborn defects in metabolism. The liver has thus evolved the capacity to efficiently repair and regenerate. We discuss the emerging field of using zebrafish to study liver regeneration and highlight recent advances where zebrafish genetics and imaging approaches have provided novel insights into how cell plasticity contributes to liver regeneration.

KW - Animals

KW - Liver

KW - Liver Diseases

KW - Liver Regeneration

KW - Models, Biological

KW - Zebrafish

KW - Journal Article

KW - Review

U2 - 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2016.11.012

DO - 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2016.11.012

M3 - Review

C2 - 28335859

VL - 124

SP - 161

EP - 195

JO - Current Topics in Developmental Biology

JF - Current Topics in Developmental Biology

SN - 0070-2153

ER -