Abstract
Here we provide evidence that both pharmacological and environmental manipulations similarly blunt the cortisol release in response to an acute stressor in adult zebrafish. Different groups of fish were maintained isolated or group-housed in barren or enriched tanks, and then exposed or not to diazepam or fluoxetine. Acute stress increased cortisol levels in group-housed zebrafish maintained in barren environment. Single-housed zebrafish displayed a blunted cortisol response to stress. Environmental enrichment also blunted the stress response and this was observed in both isolated and group-housed fish. The same blunting effect was observed in zebrafish exposed to diazepam or fluoxetine. We highlighted environmental enrichment as an alternative and/or complimentary therapeutic for reducing stress and as a promoter of animal welfare.
Highlights
IntroductionZebrafish have been used in several research areas due to genetic homology with humans[9], as a model organism in neuroscience and behavioral studies, as well as to test candidate drugs[10,11,12]
One of the most used fish models is the teleost zebrafish (Danio rerio)
We provide evidence that both pharmacological and environmental manipulations blunt the cortisol release in response to an acute stressor in adult zebrafish. We achieve this conclusion since fish housed in environmental enriched tanks as well those exposed to fluoxetine or diazepam presented lower cortisol concentrations than fish housed in barren tanks
Summary
Zebrafish have been used in several research areas due to genetic homology with humans[9], as a model organism in neuroscience and behavioral studies, as well as to test candidate drugs[10,11,12]. The effects of many psychiatric drugs have been widely studied in relation to the zebrafish stress response[13,14,15]. To our knowledge, there are no studies regarding the effects of environmental enrichment, psychotropics and their association (environmental enrichment plus psychotropics) in different housing conditions on the zebrafish stress response. The question: do environmental complexity and psychotropics modulate the stress neuroendocrine axis in different fish housing conditions? The question: do environmental complexity and psychotropics modulate the stress neuroendocrine axis in different fish housing conditions? To answer this question, our strategy was to evaluate the acute stress response in single- or group-housed fish maintained in environmentally enriched or barren tanks, and exposed or not to diazepam or fluoxetine for a 15-day period
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