Zebrafish as a model organism for cardiovascular studies

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is a need for a model organism which is cost effective, easy to use and maintain in a lab. Zebrafish qualifies very well for all these criteria. The maintenance cost is much lower than rodents and it is a small animal and easy to use. Adult zebrafish grows to 3-4 cm and females can lay hundreds of eggs daily; providing a good supply of embryos for the experiments. The complete genome of the zebrafish is sequenced, making genetic modifications and related studies possible.