Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada; Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Canada.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2019 Apr;179:124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.pbb.2019.02.011. Epub 2019 Feb 23.
The zebrafish is becoming increasingly utilized in behavioral neuroscience as it appears to strike a good compromise between practical simplicity and system complexity. Particularly in alcohol (ethanol) research, the zebrafish has been employed as a translationally relevant model organism. However, the majority of studies investigating the effects of alcohol on brain function and behavior has used adult zebrafish. In the current study, we utilize 6-8 post-fertilization day old larval zebrafish (fry) to investigate the effects of a 40 min-long, acute, immersion into the alcohol bath. We measure the behavioral responses of the fry during the immersion session in relatively large arenas, the petri dish, instead of the often employed 96 well plate, and report on significant modification of behavior induced by alcohol. For example, we found the intermediate dose of alcohol (0.5%, vol/vol) to exert a stimulant effect manifesting as slight elevation of swim speed, robust increase of turning, temporal variability of swim speed and turning, and diminished frequency of staying immobile. We also found the high dose of 1% alcohol to elicit an opposite response, a sedative effect. This biphasic dose response of alcohol mimics what has been found in mammals, including humans, and thus we conclude that a few day-old zebrafish fry may be a cost effective and efficient tool with which one can screen for small molecules or mutations with alcohol-effect modifying properties.
斑马鱼在行为神经科学中越来越受欢迎，因为它似乎在实用性和系统复杂性之间取得了很好的平衡。特别是在酒精（乙醇）研究中，斑马鱼已被用作具有转化相关性的模式生物。然而，大多数研究酒精对大脑功能和行为影响的研究都使用成年斑马鱼。在本研究中，我们使用 6-8 个孵化后一天的幼鱼（幼虫）来研究急性浸入酒精浴 40 分钟对大脑的影响。我们在相对较大的培养皿（培养皿）而不是通常使用的 96 孔板中测量幼虫在浸入过程中的行为反应，并报告酒精诱导的行为的显著变化。例如，我们发现中等剂量的酒精（0.5%，体积/体积）会产生兴奋剂作用，表现为游泳速度略有升高，转弯次数明显增加，游泳速度和转弯的时间变异性增加，以及静止不动的频率降低。我们还发现高剂量的 1%酒精产生相反的反应，即镇静作用。这种酒精的双相剂量反应类似于在哺乳动物（包括人类）中发现的反应，因此我们得出结论，几天大的斑马鱼幼虫可能是一种具有成本效益和效率的工具，可以用来筛选具有酒精效应修饰特性的小分子或突变体。
