Fig. 2

zrps3a, zrpl5a, or zrpl11 Knockdown Heightens Vulnerability to Alcohol-Induced Apoptosis in 12 hpf Zebrafish Embryos.

(A-E) Untreated embryos (A) had few TUNEL+ cells in the cranial region (arrow). Treatment with a nonsense morpholino (B) caused a modest increase in TUNEL⁺ cells within the cranial region (arrow), as did morpholinos directed against zrps3a (C), zrpl5a (D), or zrpl11 (E). (F-J) Alcohol treatment (F) caused appreciable apoptosis within both cranial and somatic regions. The addition of nonsense morpholino treatment (G) did not further increase TUNEL⁺ cell numbers in alcohol-treated embryos. However, the combination of alcohol with morpholino directed against zrps3a (H), zrpl5a (I), or zrpl11 (J) resulted in higher levels of apoptosis within the cranial region as compared with embryos that received the same morpholino and no alcohol (C-E), or alcohol and no morpholino (F). All views are lateral at equivalent magnification, with rostral at the top and the embryo ‘looking’ left. Arrow indicates the cranial region. (K) Enumeration of TUNEL⁺ cranial cells in alcohol- and morpholino-treated embryos. Values are mean ± S.D. with 10–12 embryos per treatment. ^* Alcohol group differs from no-alcohol control within a treatment at P<0.05. ^† Morpholino-treated differs from its irrelevant-morpholino control at P<0.05. Abbreviation used: Alc, alcohol; C, control; MO, morpholino; y, yolk.