Non-invasive Imaging of the Innate Immune Response in a Zebrafish Larval Model of Streptococcus iniae Infection

The overall goal of this procedure is to micro inject zebrafish larva with a bacterial pathogen streptococcus IEA for live non-invasive imaging of the host immune response. This is accomplished by first loading the microinjection needle with a bacterial suspension and lining up anesthetized zebrafish larvae on the agarose injection mold. Next, the bacterial suspension is micro injected into the otic vesicle of the larvae.

Then the injected larva are mounted in low melt agarose. Gus finally host immune cells are photo labeled for easy tracking and the infection is imaged using a confocal microscope. Ultimately micro injection of streptococcus IEA into the otic vesicle and the subsequent photo labeling and confocal microscopy are used to study the host immune response of zebrafish larvae.