Alcohol Impairs Predation Risk Response and Communication in Zebrafish

Abstract

The effects of ethanol exposure on Danio rerio have been studied from the perspectives of developmental biology and behavior. However, little is known about the effects of ethanol on the prey-predator relationship and chemical communication of predation risk. Here, we showed that visual contact with a predator triggers stress axis activation in zebrafish. We also observed a typical stress response in zebrafish receiving water from these conspecifics, indicating that these fish chemically communicate predation risk. Our work is the first to demonstrate how alcohol effects this prey-predator interaction. We showed for the first time that alcohol exposure completely blocks stress axis activation in both fish seeing the predator and in fish that come in indirect contact with a predator by receiving water from these conspecifics. Together with other research results and with the translational relevance of this fish species, our data points to zebrafish as a promising animal model to study human alcoholism.

An integrative analysis of ethanol tolerance and withdrawal in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

“…In humans, cortisol is released in response to a stressor as does to ethanol through the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis [45]. Unlike rodents which release corticosterone [46], zebrafish utilize cortisol as the primary stress hormone through the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interenal (HPI) axis [24, 29, 47, 48; 58]. Ethanol naïve zebrafish exhibited a significant increase in the levels of cortisol in response to the highest concentration of ethanol (1.00% v/v), which suggest that at this dose, acute ethanol is aversive.…”

Diazepam and Fluoxetine Decrease the Stress Response in Zebrafish

“…Whole-body cortisol was extracted using the method described by Oliveira et al [30]. The accuracy was tested by calculating the recoveries from samples spiked with known amounts of cortisol (50, 25 and 12.5 ng/mL).…”

Sensory ecology of ostariophysan alarm substances

“…The activation of the POA that is observed after CAS exposure is possibly related to the neuroendocrine profile that is observed in CAS‐exposed animals. Increases in cortisol levels were observed after CAS (Abreu et al ., ; Mathuru et al ., ; Schirmer et al ., ; Silva et al ., ) and disturbance signals (Barcellos et al ., , ; Oliveira et al ., , ; §9) in different species. Moreover, in D. rerio CAS elevates plasma levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine and glucose (Maximino et al ., ), strongly implicating the sympathetic system in these vegetative adjustments.…”