Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Moderate developmental alcohol exposure reduces repetitive alternation in a zebrafish model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Madeleine Cleal, Matthew O. Parker
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/370072
Madeleine Cleal
School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science, University of Portsmouth, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Matthew O. Parker
School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science, University of Portsmouth, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: matthew.parker@port.ac.uk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The damaging effects of alcohol on a developing fetus are well known and cause a range of conditions known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). High levels of alcohol exposure lead to physical deformity and severe cognitive deficits, but more moderate exposure leads to a range of subtle cognitive effects such as reduced social behavior, higher propensity to develop addictions, and reduced spatial working memory. Previous studies have demonstrated that following exposure to relatively low levels of ethanol during early brain development (equivalent in humans to moderate exposure) zebrafish display a range of social and behavioral differences. Here, our aim was to test the hypothesis that moderate developmental ethanol exposure would affect aspects of learning and memory in zebrafish. In order to do this, we exposed zebrafish embryos to 20mM [0.12% v/v] ethanol from 2 to 9 dpf to model the effects of moderate prenatal ethanol (MPE) exposure. At 3 months old, adult fish were tested for appetitive and aversive learning, and for spatial alternation in a novel unconditioned y-maze protocol. We found that MPE did not affect appetitive or aversive learning, but exposed-fish showed a robust reduction in repetitive alternations in the y-maze when compared to age matched controls. This study confirms that moderate levels of ethanol exposure to developing embryos have subtle effects on spatial working memory in adulthood. Our data thus suggest that zebrafish may be a promising model system for studying the effects of alcohol on learning and decision-making, but also for developing treatments and interventions to reduce the negative effects of prenatal alcohol.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a University of Portsmouth Science Faculty PhD studentship (MC).

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted July 16, 2018.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Moderate developmental alcohol exposure reduces repetitive alternation in a zebrafish model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Moderate developmental alcohol exposure reduces repetitive alternation in a zebrafish model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
Madeleine Cleal, Matthew O. Parker
bioRxiv 370072; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/370072
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Moderate developmental alcohol exposure reduces repetitive alternation in a zebrafish model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
Madeleine Cleal, Matthew O. Parker
bioRxiv 370072; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/370072

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Pharmacology and Toxicology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3592)
  • Biochemistry (7562)
  • Bioengineering (5508)
  • Bioinformatics (20762)
  • Biophysics (10309)
  • Cancer Biology (7967)
  • Cell Biology (11627)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6602)
  • Ecology (10190)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13594)
  • Genetics (9532)
  • Genomics (12834)
  • Immunology (7917)
  • Microbiology (19525)
  • Molecular Biology (7651)
  • Neuroscience (42027)
  • Paleontology (307)
  • Pathology (1254)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2196)
  • Physiology (3263)
  • Plant Biology (7029)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1294)
  • Synthetic Biology (1949)
  • Systems Biology (5422)
  • Zoology (1114)