The Cardiovascular Response to Acute Hypoxic Conditions in Danio rerio

There are many fish that can withstand hypoxia levels. One in particular is the zebrafish (Danio rerio). The zebrafish is a small-sized, Cyprinid teleost fish, and has been used in a laboratory setting for many reasons. A few reasons being that they are widely available, easy to care for, and the cost for these fish are very low. There are various reasons why these fish are used as a model. One main reason is because their cardiovascular system is one of the first developing organs. This allows for better resolution when studying the cardiovascular system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cardiovascular system of danio rerio during low oxygen conditions, and to investigate the cardiac response when Pcrit is reached. It is hypothesized that cardiac response will increase during the hypoxic conditions. This is because acute bouts of hypoxia are more stressful and cause more physiological impairment, than low O2 environments. A response will be much more apparent in embryonic zebrafish in stressful conditions. This stress response will be seen when normal heart rate, cardiac output, and stroke volume change