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When it comes to surviving extreme conditions, premature babies could learn a thing a two from zebrafish, a surprisingly close genetic cousin of humans. Cast out into the world before they're ready, infants born prematurely have a markedly increased risk of death in the first year of life. They also have a greater risk for serious problems such as cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease, mental retardation and vision or hearing loss.
"When babies are born prematurely they fall out of the perfectly controlled environment of the womb, and intensive care doctors have to try to recreate the womb for those babies," explains Farhad Imam, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in Newborn Medicine at Children's. "We want to identify the tools that zebrafish use to protect themselves in stressed conditions."
Zebrafish are able to tolerate a wide range of adverse conditions, making them a perfect model for trying to understand which genes matter in fetal protection. Since the embryos develop in eggs outside the body, they can be easily put into different environments such as warm or cold temperatures, or high or low oxygen saturation. Using DNA microarrays, Imam and colleagues in the laboratory of Alexander Schier, PhD, in Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, can then examine which genes are turned on or turned off in the embryos under normal versus stressed conditions. Although zebrafish have many genetic similarities to humans, they are using their genetic inheritance differently, in ways that could be instructive.
"Ultimately, we want a better understanding of which factors might help improve outcomes for premature babies," says Imam, "so that it may be possible to activate natural protective responses pharmacologically."
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