Fishing anti(lymph)angiogenic drugs with zebrafish

Zebrafish, an amenable small teleost fish with a complex mammal-like circulatory system, is being increasingly used for drug screening and toxicity studies. It combines the biological complexity of in vivo models with a higher-throughput screening capability compared with other available animal models. Externally growing, transparent embryos, displaying well-defined blood and lymphatic vessels, allow the inexpensive, rapid, and automatable evaluation of drug candidates that are able to inhibit neovascularisation. Here, we briefly review zebrafish as a model for the screening of anti(lymph) angiogenic drugs, with emphasis on the advantages and limitations of the different zebrafish-based in vivo assays.Our experimental work was supported by grants BIO2014-56092-R (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER), and PIE P12-CTS-1507,CVI-6585 and funds from group BIO-267 (Andalucian Government and FEDER). CIBER de Enfermedades Raras and CIBER de Bioingenierı´a, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina are initiatives from the ISCIII (Spain). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript