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Daily patterns in phagocytosis by zebrafish kidney leukocytes
Author(s) -
Chrenek Ryan,
Ruksznis Catarina,
Bagley Patrick,
Kaplan Jessica,
Hannum Lynn
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.864.7
Subject(s) - zebrafish , phagocytosis , immune system , biology , flow cytometry , circadian rhythm , microbiology and biotechnology , respiratory burst , kidney , vertebrate , immunology , gene , endocrinology , genetics
The cyclic expression of clock genes creates daily variations in vertebrate behavior and physiology. Oscillations in leukocyte number and activity have been reported in mammalian systems, but little is known about daily rhythms in zebrafish immune function. Expanding the scope of our earlier work on patterns in zebrafish respiratory burst responses, we have examined daily patterns in the phagocytic activity of zebrafish kidney leukocytes. Phagocytosis of bacteria was monitored by flow cytometry at 4 hour intervals throughout 24‐hour periods. The percentage of phagocytes engulfing S. aureus peaked at 2 a.m. (ZT 18) and reached a low at 2 p.m. (ZT 6). Peak relative numbers of bacteria engulfed per cell occurred at 10 a.m. (ZT 2), after which levels fell steadily until dramatically increasing again at 10 a.m. These data provide evidence of rhythmic immune activity in zebrafish, and suggest that zebrafish can be a valuable model in which to study the relationship between circadian gene expression and the activity of immune system cells. This work was supported by NIH Grant Number P20 RR‐016463 from the INBRE Program of the National Center for Research Resources.