PUBLICATION

Cardiac response to startle stimuli in larval zebrafish: sympathetic and parasympathetic components

Authors
Mann, K.D., Hoyt, C., Feldman, S., Blunt, L., Raymond, A., and Page-McCaw, P.S.
ID
ZDB-PUB-100211-12
Date
2010
Source
American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology   298(5): R1288-R1297 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Page-McCaw, Patrick
Keywords
cardiac regulation, sympathetic, parasympathetic, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Bradycardia/etiology
  • Bradycardia/physiopathology
  • Heart/embryology
  • Heart/innervation*
  • Heart Rate/physiology
  • Larva/physiology*
  • Models, Animal
  • Parasympathetic Nervous System/embryology
  • Parasympathetic Nervous System/physiology*
  • Reflex, Startle/physiology*
  • Sympathetic Nervous System/embryology
  • Sympathetic Nervous System/physiology*
  • Tachycardia/etiology
  • Tachycardia/physiopathology
  • Zebrafish/embryology
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
PubMed
20130228 Full text @ Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol.
Abstract
Central regulation of cardiac output via the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system allows the organism to respond to environmental changes. Sudden onset stimuli, startle stimuli, are useful probes to study central regulatory responses to the environment. In mammals, startle stimuli induce a transient bradycardia that habituates with repeated stimulation. Repeated presentation of the stimulus results in tachycardia. In this study, we investigate the behavioral regulation of heart rate in response to sudden stimuli in the zebrafish. Larval zebrafish show a stereotyped heart rate response to mild electrical shock. Naive fish show a significant increase in inter-beat interval that resolves in the 2 seconds following stimulation. This transient bradycardia decreases on repeated exposure to the stimulus. Following repeated stimulation, the fish become tachycardic within one minute of stimulation. Both the transient bradycardia and following tachycardia responses are blocked with administration of the ganglionic blocker hexamethonium, demonstrating that these responses are mediated centrally. The transient bradycardia is blocked by the muscarinic antagonist atropine suggesting that this response is mediated by the parasympathetic system, while the following tachycardia is specifically blocked by the beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol suggesting that this response is mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. Together these results demonstrate that larval stage zebrafish actively regulate cardiac output to changes in their environment using both the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system; a behavioral response that is markedly similar to that observed in mammals to similar sudden onset stimuli.
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