Author Spotlight: Isolating and Analyzing Intestinal Cells of Zebrafish Larvae for Investigating Transcriptomic Aspects of Gastrointestinal Development

Our research aims to investigate the transcriptomic changes occurring during gastrointestinal development and dysfunction in zebrafish larvae. Here, we provide a new protocol that allows isolation of different cell types within the zebrafish intestine, which has potential applications in understanding gastrointestinal health and disease. In recent years, there has been growing interest in exploring the interaction between the enteric nervous system and other intestinal cell types during development and disease.

Understanding these complex dynamics using advanced techniques like single-cell RNA sequencing, holds the potential to reveal critical insights into enteric neuromyopathies, leading to more precise diagnostics and treatments. Using this protocol, we successfully identified various intestinal cell types, including epithelial, stromal, bloods, muscle, immune cells, and even enteric neurons and glia, which have not been captured before at this amount using similar approaches. Thus, we provide a reliable technique to study the gastrointestinal composition during development and dysfunction.