Neurohypophyseal hormones manipulation modulate social and anxiety-related behavior in zebrafish

• DOI: 10.1007/s00213-011-2482-2
• Publication Date: 2011-09-28T06:12:39Z
• Authors: Daniela Braida; Andrea Donzelli; Roberta Martucci; Valeria Capurro; Marta Busnelli; Bice Chini; Mariaelvina Sala
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; oxytocin ; vasopressin ; isotocin ; vasotocin ; shoaling ; anxiety ; social behavior ; selective antagonist; Receptors, Vasopressin; Indoles; Pyrrolidines; Vasopressins; Selective antagonist; Ornipressin; Anxiety; Oxytocin; Radioligand Assay; 03 medical and health sciences; Vasotocin; Animals; Social behavior; Social Behavior; Swimming; Zebrafish; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Isotocin; Shoaling; Fear; Anti-Anxiety Agents; Receptors, Oxytocin; Pituitary Hormones, Posterior; Vasopressin; Antidiuretic Hormone Receptor Antagonists

Oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) regulate social behavior in mammals. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) allows higher throughput and ease in studying human brain disorders.This study investigated in zebrafish the effect of non-mammalian homologs isotocin (IT) and vasotocin (AVT) in comparison with OT/AVP on social behavior and fear response to predator. The mechanism was studied using the most human selective OT and AVP receptor antagonists.Zebrafish were injected i.m. with increasing doses (0.001-40 ng/kg) of the neuropeptides. DesGly-NH(2)-d(CH(2))(5)-[D-Tyr(2),Thr(4)]OVT) for OT receptor, SR 49059 for V1a subtype receptor, and SSR-149415 for V1b subtype receptor were injected i.m. 10 min before each agonist.All the peptides increased social preference and reduced fear to predator response in a dose-dependent manner interpolated by symmetrical parabolas. AVT/AVP were more potent to elicit anxiolytic than social effect while IT and OT were equally potent. All the antagonists dose-dependently inhibited both the effects induced by the neuropeptides. The ratio between the ED50 obtained for blocking the OT-induced effects on social preference and fear response to predator was very high only for desglyDTTyrOVT (160). SR49059 showed the highest ratio in blocking AVP-induced effects (807). The less selective antagonist appeared to be SSR149415.For the first time, IT/AVT and OT/AVP were found to modulate in zebrafish, social behavior, unrelated to sex, and fear to predator response through at least two different receptors. Zebrafish is confirmed as a valid, reliable model to study deficit in social behavior characteristic of some psychiatric disorders.