title: Human prokinetic drugs promote gastrointestinal motility in zebrafish.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders are highly prevalent in populations worldwide and the development of effective and safe drug treatments for GI motility disorders has proven challenging. In this study, taking advantage of the transparency of larval zebrafish, we developed a novel zebrafish GI motility model for drug screening and efficacy assessment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Zebrafish at 5 days postfertilization were fed 10 μg/L Nile red for 16 h, followed by drug treatment for 6 h. Tested drugs were delivered into the zebrafish by direct soaking. Drug effect on zebrafish GI motility was quantitatively assessed using GI tract fluorescent image-based morphometric analysis. During all the periods of the experiments, the zebrafish were not fed any food.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All four human prokinetic drugs (domperidone, metoclopramide, mosapride, and magnesium sulfate) increased zebrafish GI motility, whereas two drugs that inhibit human GI movement (atropine and anisodamine) and two negative control drugs (glucose and vitamin C) did not show statistically significant effect on zebrafish GI motility.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that larval zebrafish motility model developed here is a useful tool for whole-animal in vivo GI transit studies and for assessing prokinetic drugs.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Provincial Key Lab for Technology and Application of Model Organisms, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China; Hunter Biotechnology Inc., Transfarland, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: S-Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: C-Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001549:Benzamides / Q000494:pharmacology; D004294:Domperidone / Q000494:pharmacology; D005765:Gastrointestinal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008278:Magnesium Sulfate / Q000494:pharmacology; D008787:Metoclopramide / Q000494:pharmacology; D009025:Morpholines / Q000494:pharmacology; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D001549:Benzamides; D005765:Gastrointestinal Agents; D009025:Morpholines; D004294:Domperidone; D008278:Magnesium Sulfate; C062720:mosapride; D008787:Metoclopramide
keywords: Nile red; gastrointestinal motility; peristalsis; prokinetic drugs; zebrafish