ABSTRACT
The first animal model of congenital sideroblastic anemia was the zebrafish mutant, sauternes (au), which develops microcytic, hypochromic anemia. The zebrafish is the first genetically accurate model of hepatoerythropoietic porphyria that can be used to study the pathogenesis of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (UROD) deficiency. This chapter reviews current literature focusing on clinical chemistry values, sample collection techniques, as well as preanalytical sources of variation known to impact fish physiology, clinical chemistry, and genetics. It focuses on freshwater fish in an attempt to highlight the need to establish clinical chemistry baselines to promote good research data, minimize variability, and for health monitoring. Fish clinical chemistry is a valuable tool in disease diagnosis but lacks the nomenclature and procedural standardization that exist with mammalian clinical chemistry. Optimization of fish blood sampling techniques may require either immobilization under anesthesia and/or the use of physical restraint.
