Before creating the skinbow zebrafish, the researchers identified three things they needed to make their vision a reality. They needed an adult epithelial tissue section that is highly regenerative and also easily accessible for imaging, a method for stably and individually labeling each cell in the epithelial tissue with an in vivo tag, and cell tracking software for large-scale surveillance. Using Brainbow-based multicolor labeling, they were able to individually label superficial epithelial cells (SECs) covering the zebrafish, and that is the skinbow used in these studies.
Epithelial tissue has a very specific structure. The cells in the superficial and suprabasal levels of epithelium do not undergo cell division, but are instead replenished by differentiated epithelial cells that are derived from a pool of stem cells located in the underlying basal layer. With skinbow, the researchers were able to track the normal cycle of epithelial regeneration and also how that process changes when the epithelium is repairing an injury. Check out the video below to see the colorful SECs in action and to hear from principal investigator Kenneth Poss.
Source: Developmental Cell