Non-invasive ECG recording for Zebrafish

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a high prevalence cardiovascular disease with a tendency to increase. Although MI therapy has increased its effectiveness, the loss of myocardial function in consequence of MI is still responsible for major subsequent complications as rhythm changes and heart failure. In human hearts, MI is characterized by cardiomyocyte death and fibrin deposition, which is later replaced by scar tissue. In opposition, zebrafish heart undergoes minimal scaring and cardiac tissue can undergo full functionally regeneration in 60 to 120 days. Therefore, this animal model has been used in cardiovascular research as a model for studying mechanisms of cardiac regeneration. The hearts of zebrafish is anatomically different from the human heart, though the electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern and the critical conduction pathways are comparable to the human's. The objective of our full project is the implementation of an ECG recording system with 3 orthogonal electrodes in 2 planes, in order to create a 4D recording of the zebrafish cardiac electrical activity. Here we present our preliminary work related to a non-invasive ECG monitoring with two electrodes.