Anxiety-like behavior can be defined as a state of apprehension where the danger is imminent and may occur from exposure to new environments or uncontrollable aversive stimuli. Many neurotransmission systems may be involved in the modulation of anxiety states in mammals as well as in teleosts. Among these, the GABAergic and glutamatergic systems are the main modulation pathways of anxiety-like behavior. Therefore, the present work aims to evaluate the extracellular levels of GABA and glutamate throughout the process of anxiety generation in Danio rerio exposed in Dark/light Preference (DLP) and Novel Tank (NT) tests. Sixty animals (Danio rerio, (wild type, longfinn) were used, which were exposed to DLP and NT at times 5, 10 and 15 minutes. The parameters analyzed for DLP were: time in the white compartment, number of quadrants crossed in the white compartment and transitions between compartments; for the NT, the parameters were: Time in the upper half, number of squares crossed, entrances at the top, maximum speed, average speed and total distance traveled. Then, the brains were dissected and incubated with Hank/Na+ for further quantification of GABA and Glutamate by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). All tests were filmed and videos evaluated using Zebtrack software. One-way ANOVA test with Tukey post-test was applied, considering significant values p<0.05. Data were expressed as mean ± standard error mean and all experiments were previously approved by the local ethics committee (CEPAE UFPA 213-14). Our results demonstrate exploration of the white compartment in the LDT test, with no difference between the times (F [3, 20] = 17.10) and no change in the number of midleline crossings between the compartments between minutes 5 and 10 (F [3,20] = 6.28, p <0.05). There was an increase in the number of squares crossed in the time of 15 minutes in relation to the other exploration times (F [3, 20] = 13.04, p <0.03).In addition, there was an increase in extracellular glutamate content during the test (F [4, 10] = 8.98) and decrease of GABA in the last minutes compared to animals not exposed to the test (F [4,9] = 20,83; <0.05). The behavioral patterns of the animals exposed to the NT test also vary according to the time of exposure, where, as time increases, there is an increase in the time of the top exploration (F [3, 28] = 15.99, p <0.01), (F [3, 22] = 16.86 p <0.05), increase in the number of squares crossed (F [3, 21] = 38.70, p <0.01), increase in the total distance traveled [3, 27] = 61.44, p <0.01), with no change in maximum speed (F [3, 28] = 19.73, p <0.01) and mean speed at all times. Glutamate levels increase on exposure to the test (F [4, 10] = 24.62) and GABA levels remain unchanged (F [4,9] = 1.76). We conclude, therefore, that glutamatergic and gabaergic systems modulate the anxiety-like behavior in Danio rerio differently.
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