| Title: | Understanding behavioral and physiological phenotypes of stress and anxiety in zebrafish |
| Author(s): | Egan RJ; Bergner CL; Hart PC; Cachat JM; Canavello PR; Elegante MF; Elkhayat SI; Bartels BK; Tien AK; Tien DH; Mohnot S; Beeson E; Glasgow E; Amri H; Zukowska Z; Kalueff AV; |
| Address: | "Stress Physiology and Research Center (SPaRC), Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University Medical School, 3900 Reservoir Road, Washington, DC 20057, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.06.022 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1872-7549 (Electronic) 0166-4328 (Print) 0166-4328 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is emerging as a promising model organism for experimental studies of stress and anxiety. Here we further validate zebrafish models of stress by analyzing how environmental and pharmacological manipulations affect their behavioral and physiological phenotypes. Experimental manipulations included exposure to alarm pheromone, chronic exposure to fluoxetine, acute exposure to caffeine, as well as acute and chronic exposure to ethanol. Acute (but not chronic) alarm pheromone and acute caffeine produced robust anxiogenic effects, including reduced exploration, increased erratic movements and freezing behavior in zebrafish tested in the novel tank diving test. In contrast, ethanol and fluoxetine had robust anxiolytic effects, including increased exploration and reduced erratic movements. The behavior of several zebrafish strains was also quantified to ascertain differences in their behavioral profiles, revealing high-anxiety (leopard, albino) and low-anxiety (wild type) strains. We also used LocoScan (CleverSys Inc.) video-tracking tool to quantify anxiety-related behaviors in zebrafish, and dissect anxiety-related phenotypes from locomotor activity. Finally, we developed a simple and effective method of measuring zebrafish physiological stress responses (based on a human salivary cortisol assay), and showed that alterations in whole-body cortisol levels in zebrafish parallel behavioral indices of anxiety. Collectively, our results confirm zebrafish as a valid, reliable, and high-throughput model of stress and affective disorders" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation/pharmacology Anxiety/drug therapy/*physiopathology/*psychology Behavior, Animal/drug effects/*physiology Caffeine/pharmacology Central Nervous System Depressants/pharmacology Central Nervous System Stimulan;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineEgan, Rupert J Bergner, Carisa L Hart, Peter C Cachat, Jonathan M Canavello, Peter R Elegante, Marco F Elkhayat, Salem I Bartels, Brett K Tien, Anna K Tien, David H Mohnot, Sopan Beeson, Esther Glasgow, Eric Amri, Hakima Zukowska, Zofia Kalueff, Allan V eng R01 HL067357/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ R01 HL067357-09/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Netherlands 2009/06/23 Behav Brain Res. 2009 Dec 14; 205(1):38-44. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.06.022. Epub 2009 Jun 18" |
