TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential effects of chronic unpredictable stress on behavioral and molecular (cortisol and microglia-related neurotranscriptomic) responses in adult leopard (leo) zebrafish
AU - Kolesnikova, Tatiana O.
AU - Prokhorenko, Nikita O.
AU - Amikishiev, Sahil V.
AU - Nikitin, Vadim S.
AU - Shevlyakov, Anton D.
AU - Ikrin, Aleksey N.
AU - Mukhamadeev, Radmir R.
AU - Buglinina, Anastasiia D.
AU - Apukhtin, Kirill V.
AU - Moskalenko, Anastasia M.
AU - Ilyin, Nikita P.
AU - de Abreu, Murilo S.
AU - Demin, Konstantin A.
AU - Kalueff, Allan V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - Stress plays a key role in mental, neurological, endocrine, and immune disorders. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly gaining popularity as s model organism in stress physiology and neuroscience research. Although the leopard (leo) fish are a common outbred zebrafish strain, their behavioral phenotypes and stress responses remain poorly characterized. Here, we examined the effects of a 5-week chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) exposure on adult leo zebrafish behavior, cortisol levels, and brain gene expression. Compared to their unstressed control leo counterparts, CUS-exposed fish showed paradoxically lower anxiety-like, but higher whole-body cortisol levels and altered expression of multiple pro- and anti-inflammatory brain genes. Taken together, these findings suggest that behavioral and physiological (endocrine and genomic) responses to CUS do differ across zebrafish strains. These findings add further complexity to systemic effects of chronic stress in vivo and also underscore the importance of considering the genetic background of zebrafish in stress research.
AB - Stress plays a key role in mental, neurological, endocrine, and immune disorders. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly gaining popularity as s model organism in stress physiology and neuroscience research. Although the leopard (leo) fish are a common outbred zebrafish strain, their behavioral phenotypes and stress responses remain poorly characterized. Here, we examined the effects of a 5-week chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) exposure on adult leo zebrafish behavior, cortisol levels, and brain gene expression. Compared to their unstressed control leo counterparts, CUS-exposed fish showed paradoxically lower anxiety-like, but higher whole-body cortisol levels and altered expression of multiple pro- and anti-inflammatory brain genes. Taken together, these findings suggest that behavioral and physiological (endocrine and genomic) responses to CUS do differ across zebrafish strains. These findings add further complexity to systemic effects of chronic stress in vivo and also underscore the importance of considering the genetic background of zebrafish in stress research.
KW - Chronic stress
KW - Genetic background
KW - Leopard strain
KW - Neuroinflammation
KW - Stress-related disorders
KW - Zebrafish
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215758508&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10695-024-01446-y
DO - 10.1007/s10695-024-01446-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 39812898
AN - SCOPUS:85215758508
SN - 1573-5168
VL - 51
JO - Fish physiology and biochemistry
JF - Fish physiology and biochemistry
IS - 1
M1 - 30
ER -