Transgenic zebrafish to direct epicardial gene expression

Technology

Duke inventors have generated a novel zebrafish model that allows researchers to study epicardial cells during embryonic heart development and myocardial regeneration. This zebrafish line is termed Tg(tcf21:CreER)pd42. Specifically, this transgenic model was created by replacing the first exon of regulatory sequence tcf21 with a CreER cassette in a plasmid and injecting the resulting construct with restriction enzymes into one-cell zebrafish embryos.