A core facility which allows the expertise and the material from these cell culture and rodent models to be made available to the wider MSSM community will be an essential resource for groups studying the effects of alcohol on the liver. To complement these well-established and useful systems, new models, enabling novel approaches to studying the genetics and pathophysiology of ALD are sought. Zebrafish are renowned as a genetically tractable vertebrate system for studying embryonic development and for modeling disease. A major advantage to using zebrafish is that large numbers of embryos - hundreds to thousands on a given day - can be generated and treated with alcohol in a cost-effective and rapid manner. A state-of-the art zebrafish facility has been established at MSSM and is being used to develop genetic models of liver disease. Thus, the zebrafish component of the Models Core represents a new direction in ALD research, and including it as a core facility will enable researchers with little or no zebrafish experience to use this novel system. The combination of in vitro and in vivo resources provided by the two components of this core provide a unique environment in which to study several aspects of alcohol-generated oxidative stress liver injury.
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