The impaired novelty seeking previously found in rats administered methadone for three weeks coincides with a reduced level of pCaMKII in the brain. This finding implies that methadone treatment may affect learning and memory processes, and should stimulate further studies in a field with important knowledge gaps.
Nephrocalcinosis is a widespread challenge in intensive production of salmon smolt. There is however no consensus on its aetiology, which makes it problematic to implement proper measures to limit its development. We performed a survey of nephrocalcinosis prevalence and environmental factors in 11 different hatcheries in Mid‐Norway as well as a 6‐month monitoring in one of the hatcheries. A multivariate analysis indicated that the most influencing factor for the prevalence of nephrocalcinosis was the supplementation of sea water during smolt production. In the 6‐month monitoring, the hatchery introduced salinity in the production water prior to the change in day length. Mismatch in those environmental signals may increase the risk for developing nephrocalcinosis. Salinity fluctuations prior to smoltification can cause osmotic stress and result in unbalanced levels of ions in fish blood. This was clearly illustrated in our study, as the fish experienced chronic hypercalcaemia and hypermagnesaemia. Both magnesium and calcium are excreted over the kidneys and it is possible that their prolonged, elevated levels in plasma resulted in an oversaturation of the urine when finally excreted. This again could have led to the aggregation of calcium deposits within the kidney. This study indicates a relationship between osmotic stress induced by salinity changes in juvenile Atlantic salmon and the development of nephrocalcinosis. Other factors that may affect the severity of nephrocalcinosis are currently subjects for discussion.
Nephrocalcinosis is a common disorder in farmed Atlantic salmon, but the consequences for the fish physiology are not well understood. We performed a transcriptome study in kidneys of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts without and with severe chronic nephrocalcinosis (NC). The study revealed that numerous genes are differentially expressed in fish with NC compared with healthy salmon. The most evident changes in gene expression patterns in the NC group were a massive downregulation of metabolism and energy production, upregulation of signalling pathways important for tissue repair and function maintenance and upregulation of inflammatory responses. Overall, the extensive tissue damage and the gene regulation responses that affect salmon with severe nephrocalcinosis are highly likely to have dramatic consequences on fish survival.
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