For all those who are interested in cholesterol, strange genetic-mutation animals and scientific breakthroughs, then this bit of news is for you. Traditionally, it is very difficult to observe the development of atheroscelerosis – the lining of the arteries with fatty plaques – due to the arteries being inside people who are alive and more concerned with not eating hamburgers than having their hearts scanned.
But help is on the way in a rather unexpected form – a transparent fish. The zebra fish is see- through, which allowed scientists to watch the blood vessels furring up with cholesterol and subsequently narrowing, after they fed it junk food. A green fluorescent protein was used to light up the cells lining the inner surface of the blood vessels, while red-tagged dietary fats and inflammatory immune cells were used to illuminate the damaged areas.
While studies had been done on rabbits and mice to observe the effects of extreme hyperlipidemia – or the presence of excess fat and cholesterol in the blood – detailed examination of the build up of fatty plaques was only possible through a post-mortem. The study has been published online, ahead of its appearance in the print copy of Circulation Research, which the American Heart Association publishes.
The scientists from the University of California are hopeful that the research will help doctors understand better how heart disease happens in humans. The doctor who lead the study, Dr. Yury Miller, said: “The use of this transparent zebrafish model is a promising method to screen for new drugs and cardiovascular imaging agents".