Laboratory of Translational Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Behavioral Neurobiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
János Szentágothai Doctoral School of Neurosciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
Sci Rep. 2018 Nov 8;8(1):16590. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34989-1.
Larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) has the potential to supplement rodent models due to the availability of resource-efficient, high-throughput screening and high-resolution imaging techniques. Although behavioural models are available in larvae, only a few can be employed to assess anxiety. Here we present the swimming plus-maze (SPM) test paradigm, a tool to assess anxiety-related avoidance of shallow water bodies in early developmental stages. The "+" shaped apparatus consists of arms of different depth, representing different levels of aversiveness similarly to the rodent elevated plus-maze. The paradigm was validated (i) in larval and juvenile zebrafish, (ii) after administration of compounds affecting anxiety and (iii) in differentially aversive experimental conditions. Furthermore, we compared the SPM with conventional "anxiety tests" of zebrafish to identify their shared characteristics. We have clarified that the preference of deeper arms is ontogenetically conserved and can be abolished by anxiolytic or enhanced by anxiogenic agents, respectively. The behavioural readout is insensitive to environmental aversiveness and is unrelated to behaviours assessed by conventional tests involving young zebrafish. Taken together, we have developed a sensitive high-throughput test allowing the assessment of anxiety-related responses of zebrafish regardless of developmental stage, granting the opportunity to combine larva-based state-of-the-art methods with detailed behavioral analysis.
由于资源高效、高通量筛选和高分辨率成像技术的可用性，幼虫斑马鱼（Danio rerio）有可能补充啮齿动物模型。尽管幼虫有行为模型，但只能使用少数模型来评估焦虑。在这里，我们提出了游泳加迷宫（SPM）测试范式，这是一种评估早期发育阶段与焦虑相关的避免浅水区的工具。“+”形装置由不同深度的臂组成，代表类似啮齿动物高架加迷宫的不同厌恶水平。该范式在幼虫和幼鱼斑马鱼中进行了验证，（ii）在给予影响焦虑的化合物后，（iii）在不同厌恶的实验条件下进行了验证。此外，我们将 SPM 与传统的斑马鱼“焦虑测试”进行了比较，以确定它们的共同特征。我们已经澄清，较深臂的偏好是在发生上保守的，可以被抗焦虑剂消除，或者被焦虑剂增强。行为读数对环境厌恶不敏感，与涉及幼鱼的传统测试所评估的行为无关。总之，我们开发了一种敏感的高通量测试，允许评估斑马鱼的焦虑相关反应，无论其发育阶段如何，为将基于幼虫的最先进方法与详细的行为分析相结合提供了机会。
