Acute Restraint Stress Evokes Anxiety-Like Behavior Mediated by Telencephalic Inactivation and GabAergic Dysfunction in Zebrafish Brains

Nadyme Assad,Domingos Luiz Wanderley Picanço-Diniz,Waldo Lucas Luz,Mateus Santos-Silva,Carlomagno Pacheco Bahia,Suellen Moraes,Karen Renata Herculano Matos Oliveira,Tayana Carvalho,Anderson Manoel Herculano,Adelaide Da Conceição Passos,Evander De Jesus Oliveira Batista

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-62077-w

Nadyme Assad, Domingos Luiz Wanderley Picanço-Diniz + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62077-w

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Abstract

Acute stress is an important factor in the development of anxiety disorders. Zebrafish are an organism model widely used by studies that aim to describe the events in the brain that control stress-elicited anxiety. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the pattern of cell activation in the telencephalon of adult zebrafish and the role of the GABAergic system on the modulation of anxiety-like behavior evoked by acute restraint stress. Zebrafish that underwent acute restraint stress presented decreased expression of the c-fos protein in their telencephalon as well as a significant decrease in GABA release. The data also supports that decreased GABA levels in zebrafish brains have diminished the activation of GABAA receptors eliciting anxiety-like behavior. Taken together these findings have helped clarify a neurochemical pathway controlling anxiety-like behavior evoked by acute stress in zebrafish while also opening the possibility of new perspective opportunities to use zebrafish as an animal model to test anxyolitic drugs that target the GABAergic system.

Highlights

Anxiety is a very common behavioral disorder associated with a traumatic experience in humans[1,2,3,4]
The characterization of the roles that glutamate and GABA play in the generation of anxiety-like behavior elicited by acute stress in zebrafish is a very important step to consolidate this specie as an animal model for studies of anxiety-like behavior evoked by acute stress
Based on all these findings, the current study aimed to evaluate the pattern of brain activation of glutamate and GABA release in the brains of zebrafish that underwent acute restraint stress as well as to verify participation of glutamatergic and GABAergic systems in the anxiety-like behavior evoked by this aversive stimulus

Summary

Introduction

Anxiety is a very common behavioral disorder associated with a traumatic experience in humans[1,2,3,4]. Zebrafish represent a potential animal model for studies about anxiety disorder evoked by acute stress, it remains unclear how this aversive stimulus alters the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission in zebrafish brain. The characterization of the roles that glutamate and GABA play in the generation of anxiety-like behavior elicited by acute stress in zebrafish is a very important step to consolidate this specie as an animal model for studies of anxiety-like behavior evoked by acute stress Based on all these findings, the current study aimed to evaluate the pattern of brain activation of glutamate and GABA release in the brains of zebrafish that underwent acute restraint stress as well as to verify participation of glutamatergic and GABAergic systems in the anxiety-like behavior evoked by this aversive stimulus

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