The innate immune cell response to bacterial infection in larval zebrafish is light-regulated

The circadian clock, which evolved to help organisms harmonize physiological responses to external conditions (such as the light/dark cycle, LD), is emerging as an important regulator of the immune response to infection. Gaining a complete understanding of how the circadian clock influences the immune cell response requires animal models that permit direct observation of these processes within an intact host. Here, we investigated the use of larval zebrafish, a powerful live imaging system, as a new model to study the impact of a fundamental zeitgeber, light, on the innate immune cell response to infection. Larvae infected during the light phase of the LD cycle and in constant light condition (LL) demonstrated enhanced survival and bacterial clearance when compared with larvae infected during the dark phase of the LD cycle and in constant dark condition (DD). This increased survival was associated with elevated expression of the zebrafish orthologues of the mammalian pro-inflammatory cytokine genes, Tumour necrosis factor-alpha, Interleukin-8 and Interferon-gamma, and increased neutrophil and macrophage recruitment. This study demonstrates for the first time that the larval zebrafish innate immune response to infection is enhanced during light exposure, suggesting that, similar to mammalian systems, the larval zebrafish response to infection is light-regulated.