Nanotechnology Research Center (NANOTAM)
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Browsing Nanotechnology Research Center (NANOTAM) by Author "Adams, Michelle M."
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Item Open Access A novel, low-cost Anesthesia and injection system for Zebrafish Researchers(Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers, 2018) Oskay, Yiğit; Çetin Barbaros; Şerifoğlu, Naz; Arslan-Ergül, Ayça; Adams, Michelle M.In this study, we designed and developed a novel low-cost system for anesthetizing and injecting adult zebrafish. The system utilizes a gradual cooling method for the anesthesia and maintains the fish in a stable anesthetic plane, as well as stabilizes the animal so that intraperitoneal injections can be consistently performed. It is a system that any laboratory with access to a workshop can build for their group. Moreover, it is a safe system for researchers, as well as a reliable one for repeated experiments since multiple fish can be injected quickly and there is little physical contact necessary between the investigator and the animal. This will likely reduce any unnecessary stress in the fish, as compared with manual methods of injection. Finally, the system is adaptable so that as the investigators' procedural needs change due to different research questions, that is, gradual rewarming or something of that nature, it could be modified.Item Open Access Zebrafish brain RNA sequencing reveals that cell adhesion molecules are critical in brain aging(Elsevier, 2020) Erbaba, Begün; Burhan, Özge Pelin; Şerifoğlu, Naz; Muratoğlu, B.; Kahveci, Fatma; Adams, Michelle M.; Arslan-Ergül, A.Brain aging is a complex process, which involves multiple pathways including various components from cellular to molecular. This study aimed to investigate the gene expression changes in zebrafish brains through young-adult to adult, and adult to old age. RNA sequencing was performed on isolated neuronal cells from zebrafish brains. The cells were enriched in progenitor cell markers, which are known to diminish throughout the aging process. We found 176 statistically significant, differentially expressed genes among the groups, and identified a group of genes based on gene ontology descriptions, which were classified as cell adhesion molecules. The relevance of these genes was further tested in another set of zebrafish brains, human healthy, and Alzheimer’s disease brain samples, as well as in Allen Brain Atlas data. We observed that the expression change of 2 genes, GJC2 and ALCAM, during the aging process was consistent in all experimental sets. Our findings provide a new set of markers for healthy brain aging and suggest new targets for therapeutic approaches to neurodegenerative diseases.Item Open Access Zebrafish-A model organism for studying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive brain aging and use of potential interventions(Frontiers Media S.A., 2018) Adams, Michelle M.; Kafalıgönül, HulusiClassically, the zebrafish model organism has been used to elucidate the genetic and cellular mechanisms related to development since the embryo forms and grows externally following fertilization. This provides insight into the genetic control of developmental processes in humans because their genomes are similar. Also, unlike other animal models, the genes of zebrafish can be manipulated quite easily by using reverse genetic screens tools such as morpholinos, which transiently silence target genes of interest or systems such as the transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis or CRISPR-Cas9. Moreover, one pair of fish will provide up to 300 offspring, which means that if there is a gene of interest that is manipulated, then it can be transmitted to a large population of fish. What is beginning to emerge is that similar to other mammals, adult zebrafish have an integrated nervous system, which is proposed to contain homologous brain structures to those found in humans, as well as equivalent cellular and synaptic structure and function. Moreover, like humans, zebrafish exhibit age-related declines in cognitive functions, and a convergence of evidence has indicated that subtle changes in cellular and synaptic integrity underlie these changes. Therefore, the zebrafish is a powerful model organism for studying the neurobiological consequences of aging-related behavioral and biological changes, which offers the potential to identify possible interventions that would promote healthy aging. In what follows, we present and discuss recent findings and advances along these directions.