Differential behavioral responses of zebrafish larvae to yohimbine ...

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dark challenge phase, low concentrations of yohimbine in- creased swimming .... A round-shaped center arena that occupied half of the area of a single well was.
Psychopharmacology DOI 10.1007/s00213-014-3656-5

ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION

Differential behavioral responses of zebrafish larvae to yohimbine treatment Qiang Li & Jia Lin & Yinglan Zhang & Xiuyun Liu & Xiao Qian Chen & Ming-Qing Xu & Lin He & Sheng Li & Ning Guo

Received: 17 February 2014 / Accepted: 2 June 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Abstract Rationale Yohimbine demonstrated both anxiogenic and anxiolytic properties under different conditions in rodents. Few studies were conducted on zebrafish, a newly emerged vertebrate model organism. Zebrafish larvae are particularly suitable for high-throughput screening of drug effects. Objectives The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of yohimbine on the anxiety-related behaviors of zebrafish larvae. Methods AB strain zebrafish larvae at both 5 and 7 days postfertilization (dpf) were treated with different concentrations of yohimbine. General locomotor activities and thigmotaxis behavior were analyzed under continuous illumination, which represented normal condition, or under alternating light-dark challenges, which represented stressful environment. Q. Li (*) : J. Lin : Y. Zhang : X. Liu Translational Medical Center for Development and Disease, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Institute of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wanyuan Road, Shanghai 201102, China e-mail: [email protected] X. Q. Chen Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medicine, Key Laboratory of Neurological Diseases, Ministry of Education, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China M.