Journal
PROGRESS IN NEURO-PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 110, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110288
Keywords
Obesity; Psychobehavioral disturb; Zebrafish; Cognitive dysfunction; Anxiety-like behavior
Funding
- University of Brasilia
- Federal University of Santa Maria
- CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, PROEX/CAPES fellowship grant ) [23038.004173/2019-93]
- CNPq (National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development) [424809-2018-4]
- FAPDF (Research Support Foundation of Federal District) [00193-00001324/2019-27]
- FAPERGS (Programa Pesquisador Gaucho - PQG fellowship grant) [19/2551-0001764-2]
- CNPq [305051/2018-0, 311584/2018-7, 304209/2019-8]
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This study investigates the impact of a high-fat diet on the central nervous system by examining its effects on various behaviors in zebrafish. The results show that short-term high-fat diet leads to obesity and altered behaviors such as increased aggression and anxiety-like responses. However, social preference behavior and swimming speed remain unaffected by high-fat diet.
Obesity is a global health problem with high prevalence and defined by a high body mass index (BMI). Several comorbidities affecting the central nervous system (CNS) are associated with obesity (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive deficit, and psychobehavioral disturbs). The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been considered a suitable model organism to investigate the neurobehavioral features of various human diseases. Here, we verify the impact of a high-fat diet (HFD) on the CNS by specifically assessing the effects of short-term HFD on anxietylike responses, aggression, social preference, and memory, which are essential behaviors for survival and reproduction. Animals were separated in three experimental groups. The standard diet group (SD) received 7.5 mg/fish of dry food, while HFD groups received 5 mg/fish dry food plus 7.5 (HFD-7.5) or 15 mg/fish (HFD-15) of chicken egg yolk daily. Dietary fat content (w/w) was approximately 6.5%, 16.9%, and 21.1%, respectively. We performed behavioral tests and morphometric analyses after two weeks of HFD. In comparison to SD animals, HFD groups showed typical obesogenic responses with increases in BMI, abdominal length, and body weight. HFD individuals also showed increased aggression and anxiety-like behaviors in the mirror-induced aggression and novel tank diving tests, respectively. Interestingly, HFD did not change the social preference behavior, mean swimming speed or spontaneous activity levels, while the HFD-15 group showed cognitive deficits in the inhibitory avoidance test. Collectively, this proof-of-concept study is the first report to characterize the effects of short-term HFD on different behavioral domains of zebrafish with high degree of face validity. Moreover, our data reinforce the growing utility of zebrafish to explore the neurobehavioral basis of obesity, providing clinically translatable data, complementing the existing rodent models and supporting future mechanistic studies.
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