Behavioral and physiological effects of acute ketamine exposure in adult zebrafish

Russell Riehl, Evan Kyzar, Alexander Allain, Jeremy Green, Molly Hook, Louis Monnig, Kate Rhymes, Andrew Roth, Mimi Pham, Roshan Razavi, John DiLeo, Siddharth Gaikwad, Peter Hart, Allan V. Kalueff*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

141 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ketamine is a non-competitive glutamatergic antagonist used to induce sedation and analgesia. In sub-anesthetic doses, it induces hyperlocomotion, impairs memory and evokes stereotypic circling in rodents. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) emerged as a promising new animal model to screen the effects of psychotropic compounds. Here, we investigated the effects of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine on anxiety, locomotion, habituation and social behavior of adult zebrafish. Acute 20-min exposure to 20 and 40. mg/L (but not 2. mg/L) of ketamine reduced anxiety, impaired intra-session habituation, evoked circular swimming and disrupted zebrafish shoaling. Additionally, ketamine reduced whole-body cortisol levels and elevated brain c-fos expression in zebrafish. Our findings demonstrate the sensitivity of zebrafish to behavioral and physiological effects of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine, further supporting the utility of this species as a model for neuropharmacological research, including testing ketamine and related drugs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)658-667
Number of pages10
JournalNeurotoxicology and Teratology
Volume33
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • Aquatic models
  • Behavioral testing
  • C-fos expression
  • Cortisol
  • Locomotion and circling

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