Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 10, 2025
Modeling Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Zebrafish to Characterize the Impact of an Adverse Embryonic Environment on Adult Social Behavior
Published on: February 9, 2024
Embryonic Exposure to Ethanol Increases Anxiety-Like Behavior in Fry Zebrafish
Jaquelinne Pinheiro-da-Silva1, Thais Agues-Barbosa1, Ana Carolina Luchiari1
1Department of Physiology and Behavior, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
Aims:
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is an umbrella term to describe the effects of ethanol (Eth) exposure during embryonic development, including several conditions from malformation to cognitive deficits. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a translational model popularly applied in brain disorders and drug screening studies due to its genetic and physiology homology to humans added to its transparent eggs and fast development. In this study, we investigated how early ethanol exposure affects zebrafish behavior during the initial growth phase.
Methods:
Fish eggs were exposed to 0.0 (control), 0.25 and 0.5% ethanol at 24 h post-fertilization. Later, fry zebrafish (10 days old) were tested in a novel tank task and an inhibitory avoidance protocol to inquire about morphology and behavioral alterations.
Results:
Analysis of variance showed that ethanol doses of 0.25 and 0.5% do not cause morphological malformations and did not impair associative learning but increased anxiety-like behavior responses and lower exploratory behavior when compared to the control.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate that one can detect behavioral abnormalities in the zebrafish induced by embryonic ethanol as early as 10 days post-fertilization and that alcohol increases anxious behavior during young development in zebrafish.
