Exercise Physiology of Zebrafish: Swimming Effects on Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle Growth, on the Immune Systeme, and the Involvement of the Stress Axis

Recently, we have established zebrafish as a novel exercise model and demonstrated the stimulation of growth by exercise. Exercise may also induce cardiac hypertrophy and cardiomyocyte proliferation in zebrafish making it an important model to study vertebrate heart regeneration and improved robustness of fish in aquaculture. Moreover, zebrafish has been recently recognized as a valuable model for immunological studies since they possess an adaptive and innate immune system similar to mammals. Given the beneficial effects of exercise on mammalian immune function, zebrafish can be used to investigate exercise-induced stimulation of immune function. Current studies are aimed to demonstrate the mechanisms behind the beneficial exercise effects of enhanced skeletal and cardiac muscle growth and immune functioning and to assess the role of the cortisol stress response at the base of these beneficial exercise effects. As such, zebrafish can be used as an exercise model with implications in basic, biomedical, and applied sciences, such as aquacultur