Effects of Sodium Chloride on Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryonic Development and Analysis of the Zebrafish Embryo using ImageJ Software

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as an invaluable model organism for studying vertebrate development due to its transparency, rapid development, and genetic tractability. Sodium chloride (NaCl) is an essential component of the aquatic environment and plays a critical role in maintaining osmotic balance in fish. However, excessive salinity levels in aquatic ecosystems due to anthropogenic activities have raised concerns about their impact on aquatic organisms, particularly during early life stages. This experimental research was performed to investigate the effect of sodium chloride (common salt) on the embryonic development of Zebrafish (Danio rerio), and to examine the embryos before and after the treatment with Sodium Chloride (NaCl), and analyze the embryos using ImageJ tool. Zebrafishes were used in this experiment as they are considered as powerful model organisms, which means that the information obtained through them can help us better understand how Sodium affects the human embryos. Zebrafish embryos were placed in a tray, then the embryos were subjected to saline solutions at various concentrations for 24 hours during the experiment, including 0.002 g/mL, and 0.02 g/mL of NaCl. Furthermore, the dead embryos were separated out, data and observations were recorded. ImageJ software was used to analyze the early-hatched zebrafish embryo. The result of this experiment demonstrated that 0.002 g/ml of Sodium chloride is the ideal salt concentration for early hatching of zebrafish embryos and it has no side effects on Zebrafish embryos. The findings of this experiment suggested that Sodium chloride has minute or no side effects on the growth of human embryos, but further investigation needs to be performed