Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway.
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7030, Trondheim, Norway.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 25;10(1):10339. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67182-4.
Exposure to stress during early life affects subsequent behaviors and increases the vulnerability to adult pathologies, a phenomenon that has been well documented in humans and rodents. In this study, we introduce a chronic unpredictable stress protocol adapted to young zebrafish, which is an increasingly popular vertebrate model in neuroscience research. We exposed zebrafish to a series of intermittent and unpredictable mild stressors from day 10 to 17 post-fertilization. The stressed fish showed a reduced exploration of a novel environment one day post-stress and an increased responsiveness to dark-light transition two days post-stress, indicative of heightened anxiety-related behaviors. The stress-induced decrease in exploration lasted for at least three days and returned to control levels within one week. Moreover, stressed fish were on average 8% smaller than their control siblings two days post-stress and returned to control levels within one week. All together, our results demonstrate that young zebrafish exposed to chronic unpredictable stress develop growth and behavioral alterations akin to those observed in rodent models.
早期生活中的压力暴露会影响后续的行为，并增加成年后患病的脆弱性，这种现象在人类和啮齿动物中已有充分的记录。在这项研究中，我们引入了一种适应于幼年斑马鱼的慢性不可预测性应激协议，斑马鱼是神经科学研究中越来越受欢迎的脊椎动物模型。我们从受精后第 10 天到第 17 天，对斑马鱼进行了一系列间歇性和不可预测的轻度应激源暴露。应激后的鱼在应激后一天表现出对新环境的探索减少，对明暗转换的反应增加，表明焦虑相关行为增加。应激引起的探索减少至少持续三天，并在一周内恢复到对照水平。此外，应激后的鱼在应激后两天比其对照兄弟姐妹平均小 8%，并在一周内恢复到对照水平。总的来说，我们的结果表明，暴露于慢性不可预测性应激的幼年斑马鱼会出现生长和行为改变，类似于在啮齿动物模型中观察到的改变。
