TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding sex differences in zebrafish pain- and fear-related behaviors

AU - Marcon, Leticia

AU - C.V.V. Giacomini, Ana

AU - dos Santos, Bruna E.

AU - Costa, Fabiano

AU - Rosemberg, Denis B.

AU - Demin, Konstantin A.

AU - Kalueff, Allan V.

AU - de Abreu, Murilo S.

N1 - Funding Information: ACVVG is supported by the Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio Grande do Sul ( FAPERGS ) research fellowships 19/2551-0001-669-7. AVK is supported by the Zebrafish Platform Construction Fund from the Southwest University (SWU, Chongqing, China). MSA and FC were supported in part by Sirius University of Science and Technology. KAD is supported by the Special Rector’s Fellowship for SPSU students, and state budgetary funds to Granov Russian Scientific Research Center of Radiology and Surgical Technologies (project 121040200141-4). DBR work is supported by PROEX/CAPES (process 23038.004173/2019-93), CNPq (process 305051/2018-0) and FAPERGS (Program PQ-Gaúcho, process 19/2551-0001764-2) fellowship grants. The international collaboration during this study and research work were also supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) grant 20-65-46006. The authors thank Alexander Zanella, Gabriel P. de Mello, Nicoli R. do Amaral, Sirlei Cazarotto, and Vanuza Costella (University of Passo Fundo, Brazil) for their assistance with experimental procedures. The work used the equipment of the Resource Fund of Applied Genetics MIPT (support grant 075-15-2021-684). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2022/2/16

Y1 - 2022/2/16

N2 - Sex is an important variable in translational biomedical research. While overt sex differences have been reported for pain and fear-like behaviors in humans and rodents, these differences in other popular model organisms, such as zebrafish, remain poorly understood. Here, we evaluate potential sex differences in zebrafish behavioral responses to pain (intraperitoneal administration of 5% acetic acid) and fear stimuli (exposure to alarm substance). Overall, both male and female zebrafish exposed to pain (acetic acid injection) show lesser distance traveled, fewer top entries and more writhing-like pain-related behavior vs. controls, whereas female fish more robustly (than males) altered some other pain-like behaviors (e.g., increasing freezing episodes and time in top) in this model. In contrast, zebrafish of both sexes responded equally strongly to fear evoked by acute alarm substance exposure. Collectively, these findings emphasize the growing importance of studying sex differences in zebrafish behavioral and pain models.

AB - Sex is an important variable in translational biomedical research. While overt sex differences have been reported for pain and fear-like behaviors in humans and rodents, these differences in other popular model organisms, such as zebrafish, remain poorly understood. Here, we evaluate potential sex differences in zebrafish behavioral responses to pain (intraperitoneal administration of 5% acetic acid) and fear stimuli (exposure to alarm substance). Overall, both male and female zebrafish exposed to pain (acetic acid injection) show lesser distance traveled, fewer top entries and more writhing-like pain-related behavior vs. controls, whereas female fish more robustly (than males) altered some other pain-like behaviors (e.g., increasing freezing episodes and time in top) in this model. In contrast, zebrafish of both sexes responded equally strongly to fear evoked by acute alarm substance exposure. Collectively, these findings emphasize the growing importance of studying sex differences in zebrafish behavioral and pain models.

KW - Acetic acid

KW - Alarm substance

KW - Behavior

KW - Sex differences

KW - Zebrafish

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122539025&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.136412

DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.136412

M3 - Article

C2 - 34942320

AN - SCOPUS:85122539025

VL - 772

JO - Neuroscience Letters

JF - Neuroscience Letters

SN - 0304-3940

M1 - 136412

ER -