Academic Journal
The anoxia escape test as a novel and sensitive protocol to assess despair-like behavior in zebrafish.
| Τίτλος: | The anoxia escape test as a novel and sensitive protocol to assess despair-like behavior in zebrafish. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | da Silva Junior FC; Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5B3, Canada., de Sousa IP; FishLab, Department of Physiology and Behavior, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Biosciences Center, Graduate Program in Psychobiology, Brazil., Mamede JPM; FishLab, Department of Physiology and Behavior, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Biosciences Center, Graduate Program in Psychobiology, Brazil., Rosemberg DB; Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychobiology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Natural and Exact Sciences Center, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil., Luchiari A; FishLab, Department of Physiology and Behavior, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Biosciences Center, Graduate Program in Psychobiology, Brazil. Electronic address: ana.luchiari@ufrn.br. |
| Πηγή: | Journal of neuroscience methods [J Neurosci Methods] 2026 Aug; Vol. 432, pp. 110775. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Apr 13. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 7905558 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1872-678X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01650270 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Neurosci Methods Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Amsterdam, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Escape Reaction*/drug effects , Escape Reaction*/physiology , Hypoxia*/physiopathology , Depression*/diagnosis , Depression*/physiopathology , Depression*/drug therapy , Disease Models, Animal*, Fluoxetine/pharmacology ; Stress, Psychological/physiopathology ; Behavior, Animal/drug effects ; Animals ; Zebrafish ; Male ; Female |
| Περίληψη: | Background: Behavioral despair-like states are commonly modeled in rodents using inescapable stressors that suppress active coping, yet comparable paradigms for zebrafish remain limited. New Method: Here, we introduce and validate a simple anoxia escape test (AET) in juvenile zebrafish based on brief air exposure (60 s out-of-water emersion), an ethologically relevant and strongly aversive challenge. This assay quantifies escape motivation by measuring the number of jump attempts. To validate the test, we compared baseline control fish with animals subjected to established manipulations that induce depressive-like phenotypes and with fish treated with the antidepressant fluoxetine (1 μg/mL). Depressive-like states were induced using three approaches: a pharmacological model (reserpine, 40 μg/mL), a behavioral protocol (unpredictable chronic stress; UCS), and early developmental exposure to a drug of abuse (0.5% and 1.0% embryonic alcohol exposure), a translational model within the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Results: Baseline control and fluoxetine-treated fish showed high escape responding, predominantly at the beginning of the test, indicating robust escape drive. In contrast, UCS and embryonic alcohol exposure significantly reduced escape attempts relative to controls, consistent with impaired active coping under an uncontrollable stressor. Comparison With Existing Methods: Compared with the Forced Swim Test, the AET offers a zebrafish-adapted, minimally invasive, and quantifiable assessment of despair-like behavior. Conclusion: Taken together, the AET provides a rapid and scalable method to quantify stress-induced reductions in escape motivation in zebrafish, supporting its use to investigate despair-like states and to screen candidate treatments. (Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Alcohol; Despair-like behavior; Fluoxetine; Reserpine; Unpredictable chronic stress; Zebrafish |
| Substance Nomenclature: | 01K63SUP8D (Fluoxetine) |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260415 Date Completed: 20260715 Latest Revision: 20260715 |
| Update Code: | 20260715 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2026.110775 |
| PMID: | 41985567 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1872-678X |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2026.110775 |