PUBLICATION

Understanding nociception-related phenotypes in adult zebrafish: behavioral and pharmacological characterization using the acetic acid model

Authors
Costa, F.V., Rosa, L.V., Quadros, V.A., Santos, A.R.S., Kalueff, A.V., Rosemberg, D.B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-181009-7
Date
2018
Source
Behavioural brain research   359: 570-578 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Kalueff, Allan V.
Keywords
acetic acid, behavioral responses, body curvature index, nociception, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals, Outbred Strains
  • Analgesics, Opioid/pharmacology
  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal/drug effects
  • Narcotic Antagonists/pharmacology
  • Random Allocation
  • Female
  • Posture
  • Drug Interactions
  • Drug Discovery
  • Naloxone/pharmacology
  • Zebrafish*
  • Visceral Pain*/drug therapy
  • Visceral Pain*/physiopathology
  • Acetic Acid
  • Morphine/pharmacology
  • Male
  • Diclofenac/pharmacology
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal/pharmacology
  • Nociception*/drug effects
PubMed
30296529 Full text @ Behav. Brain Res.
Abstract
Pain, a severely debilitating symptom of many human disorders, is a growing, unmet biomedical problem. Although the use of zebrafish (Danio rerio) to investigate both behavioral and physiological nociception-related responses is expanding rapidly, the characterization of behavioral phenotypes that reflect injury location is still poorly explored, making the results of such studies difficult to interpret. Here, we characterize putative nociception-related behavioral phenotypes in adult zebrafish following an intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of acetic acid, a well-established protocol for visceral pain in rodents. Acetic acid (2.5 and 5.0%) induced an abdominal constriction-like response, which was assessed by measuring a body curvature index. Moreover, all doses tested (0.5-5.0%) reduced distance traveled and vertical activity in the novel tank test. Freezing duration increased following 5.0% acetic acid, whereas fish injected with 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0% spent more time in top area of the tank. Both morphine (an opioid analgesic) and diclofenac (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, NSAID) prevented the 5.0% acetic acid-induced changes in body curvature index, whereas naloxone blocked these effects of morphine. Overall, zebrafish exposed to a single acetic acid i.p. injection display abnormal body curvature and specific changes in behavioral parameters sensitive to anti-nociceptive pharmacological modulation. We suggest that the abdominal constriction-like response represents a novel specific nociceptive-related phenotype in zebrafish. In general, our findings support the growing utility of zebrafish in translational pain research and antinociceptive drug discovery.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping