Understanding behavioral and physiological phenotypes of stress and anxiety in zebrafish. Behav Brain Res 2009 Dec 14;205(1):38-44
Date
06/23/2009Pubmed ID
19540270Pubmed Central ID
PMC2922906DOI
10.1016/j.bbr.2009.06.022Scopus ID
2-s2.0-70349284465 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 1003 CitationsAbstract
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.
Author List
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 AVAuthor
Carisa Bergner Biostatistician II in the Surgery department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsAntidepressive Agents, Second-Generation
Anxiety
Behavior, Animal
Caffeine
Central Nervous System Depressants
Central Nervous System Stimulants
Disease Models, Animal
Ethanol
Female
Fluoxetine
Hydrocortisone
Male
Motor Activity
Phenotype
Pheromones
Species Specificity
Stress, Psychological
Zebrafish
