Chinese experts discuss zebrafish technology in health industries

BEIJING -- A group of Chinese experts met Saturday in Beijing to discuss the applications of zebrafish technology on efficacy and safety in industries of drug and health care products.

Zebrafish, a tropical fish about 2.5 cm to 4 cm long, is known for its body of dark blue stripes. Scientists have found that zebrafish share 87 percent of genes with humans, indicating its significant research and development value in life and medical sciences.

Experts shared their advice and expertise on accelerating zebrafish technology applications at a Saturday seminar by the China Healthcare Association. They included representatives from the State Administration for Market Regulation, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, the Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention, and other professionals in drug research, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and food sectors.

The zebrafish has been used as a testing animal to assess the effectiveness and safety of many TCMs, and it promises to be a highly predictive animal model for products' safety, functions, and quality, according to some TCM experts present.

Compared with mammals such as mice and monkeys, experiments on zebrafish will take shorter periods, cost less, and offer better observation conditions, said Li Chunqi, chief scientist of the Hangzhou Hunter Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Because zebrafish embryos are transparent, they are easy to be labeled with fluorescence. After the labeled zebrafish are soaked or injected with experimental drug samples, researchers can easily observe the effects of drugs on the animals' internal organs.

Other seminar speakers, however, stressed that zebrafish could be an effective supplement, rather than a substitute, to the existing evaluation methods of mammal models. They also emphasized the genetic stability and standardized husbandry of zebrafish before they are applied in the food and health product industries. They added that more studies and scientific consensus of the testing technologies are still needed.