In Vivo Monitoring of Neurotransmitters in Alive Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos

Abstract

The important biological pathways inside our body are controlled by neurotransmitters. Their real time measurements are always a challenge due to the high reactivity, low concentrations and short lifetime. The use of electrochemical sensors for such type of measurement is well established. Herein we show the in vivo measurement of Serotonin and Nitric Oxide inside Zebrafish embryos. We developed custom made carbon fibre microelectrodes which are inserted in the embryos for real time measurement. The embryos were exposed to metal nanoparticles (Cu, CuO and CeO2) to stimulate the Inflammatory Bowel Disease onset and the neurotransmitter concentrations were measured to study their impact on the pathway expression.