Endogenous tagging of multiple cellular components in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.

The cnidarian Nematostella vectensis has developed into a powerful model system to study the mechanisms underlying animal development, regeneration, and evolution. However, despite the significant progress in the molecular and genetic approaches in this sea anemone, endogenous protein tagging is still challenging. Here, we report a robust method for knock in for Nematostella using CRISPR/Cas9. As an outcome, we generate endogenously tagged proteins that label core molecular components of several cellular apparatus, including the nuclear envelope, cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, endoplasmic reticulum, cell trafficking, and extracellular matrix. Using live imaging, we monitor the dynamics of vesicular trafficking and endoplasmic reticulum in embryos, as well as cell contractility during the peristaltic wave of a primary polyp. This advancement in gene editing expands the molecular tool kit of Nematostella and enables experimental avenues to interrogate the cell biology of cnidarians.

Know the name: acute epiploic appendagitis-CT findings and review of literature.

Epiploic appendages are normal pedunculated peritoneal fat containing outpouchings bordering tenia coli on the anti-mesenteric surface of the colon, extending from caecum to the rectosigmoid. Functions are currently unknown, though some postulate them a blood reservoir. The epiploic appendages can become inflamed, with clinical presentations mimicking that of diverticulitis or acute appendicitis. However, unlike acute diverticulitis or appendicitis, epiploic appendagitis are treated conservatively with antibiotics. Currently, the estimated rate of correct preoperative diagnosis of epiploic appendagitis is 2.5%, but due to benign nature of epiploic appendagitis, it is important to appropriately diagnose it preoperatively and thus preventing unnecessary surgical interventions. Clinical features include focal area of pain, often with normal white blood cell count, that often is common in other differential diagnoses. CT scan plays a crucial role in diagnosis and shows an oval fatty density solid lesion along anterior colonic wall surface, surrounded by a rim of fat stranding. Treatment is conservative and involves use of anti-inflammatory medication.

Response of zebrafish larvae to mild electrical stimuli: A 96-well setup for behavioural screening.

BACKGROUND: Zebrafish larvae have a high potential as model system to replace rodents, especially in screening and drug discovery applications. However, an experimental setup to deliver mild electrical stimuli with simultaneous high throughput behavioural tracking has not yet been described. NEW METHOD: A new tool was designed, making the delivery of electrical stimuli in a 96-well plate format possible. Using custom made electrode clips that can be slid over the walls of a square 96-well plate, 80 larvae could be tested simultaneously and behavioural responses recorded. RESULTS: As proof of principle, two applications were tested: 1) The behavioural response after a single stimulus and the effect of buprenorphine on this response. 2) Habituation of locomotor activity to multiple stimuli and the involvement of the NMDA receptor. Reduced locomotor activity was observed after a single 5 V stimulus, however not with lower intensity stimuli. Pre-treatment with the analgesic buprenorphine prevented this response. Specificity of buprenorphine was confirmed using the antagonist naloxone. Habituation of locomotor activity was seen in response to multiple stimuli, depending on the inter stimulus interval. Treatment with the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine disrupted behavioural habituation. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: The equipment and setup described here are the first of its kind using a 96-well plate format, thereby increasing the potential throughput in screening applications using zebrafish larvae. CONCLUSION: The combination of the described electrode clips for stimulus delivery and behavioural tracking allows for the use of zebrafish larvae in a new array of medium to high throughput applications.

Repeatability of dose painting by numbers treatment planning in prostate cancer radiotherapy based on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging.

Dose painting by numbers (DPBN) refers to a voxel-wise prescription of radiation dose modelled from functional image characteristics, in contrast to dose painting by contours which requires delineations to define the target for dose escalation. The direct relation between functional imaging characteristics and DPBN implies that random variations in images may propagate into the dose distribution. The stability of MR-only prostate cancer treatment planning based on DPBN with respect to these variations is as yet unknown. We conducted a test-retest study to investigate the stability of DPBN for prostate cancer in a semi-automated MR-only treatment planning workflow. Twelve patients received a multiparametric MRI on two separate days prior to prostatectomy. The tumor probability (TP) within the prostate was derived from image features with a logistic regression model. Dose mapping functions were applied to acquire a DPBN prescription map that served to generate an intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plan. Dose calculations were done on a pseudo-CT derived from the MRI. The TP and DPBN map and the IMRT dose distribution were compared between both MRI sessions, using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to quantify repeatability of the planning pipeline. The quality of each treatment plan was measured with a quality factor (QF). Median ICC values for the TP and DPBN map and the IMRT dose distribution were 0.82, 0.82 and 0.88, respectively, for linear dose mapping and 0.82, 0.84 and 0.94 for square root dose mapping. A median QF of 3.4% was found among all treatment plans. We demonstrated the stability of DPBN radiotherapy treatment planning in prostate cancer, with excellent overall repeatability and acceptable treatment plan quality. Using validated tumor probability modelling and simple dose mapping techniques it was shown that despite day-to-day variations in imaging data still consistent treatment plans were obtained.

Kinetics of glucocorticoid exposure in developing zebrafish: A tracer study.

In the current study the dynamics of glucocorticoid uptake by zebrafish chorionated embryos from the surrounding medium were studied, using 2.5 µM cortisol or dexamethasone solutions complemented with their tritiated variant. We measured the uptake of radioactive cortisol by embryos during a 1 h submersion. Interestingly, the signal in chorionated embryos was 85% (exposure: 1-2 hpf) or 78% (exposure: 48-49 hpf) of the signal present in an equal volume medium. By comparing embryos measured without chorion, we found that 18-20% of the radioactivity present in chorionated embryos is actually bound to the chorion or located in the perivitelline space. Consequently, embryonic tissue contains radioactivity levels of 60% of a similar volume of medium after 1 h incubation. During early developmental stages (1-48 hpf) exposure of more than 24 h in cortisol was needed to achieve radioactivity levels similar to an equal volume of medium within the embryonic tissue and more than 48 h for dexamethasone. In glucocorticoid-free medium, radioactivity dropped rapidly below 10% for both glucocorticoids, suggesting that the major portion of the embryonic radioactivity was a result of simple diffusion. During later developmental stages (48-96 hpf) initial uptake dynamics were similar, but showed a decrease of tissue radioactivity to 20% of an equal volume of medium after hatching, probably due to development and activation of the hypothalamic pituitary interrenal axis. Uptake is dependent on the developmental stage of the embryo. Furthermore, the presence of the chorion during exposure should be taken into account even when small lipophilic molecules are being tested.

Multicenter validation of prostate tumor localization using multiparametric MRI and prior knowledge.

PURPOSE: Tumor localization provides crucial information for radiotherapy dose differentiation treatments, such as focal dose escalation and dose painting by numbers, which aim at achieving tumor control with minimal side effects. Multiparametric (mp-)MRI is increasingly used for tumor detection and localization in prostate because of its ability to visualize tissue structure and to reveal tumor characteristics. However, it can be challenging to distinguish cancer, particularly in the transition zone. In this study, we enhance the performance of a mp-MRI-based tumor localization model by incorporating prior knowledge from two sources: a population-based tumor probability atlas and patient-specific biopsy examination results. This information typically would be considered by a physician when carrying out a manual tumor delineation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study involves 40 patients from two centers: 23 patients from the University Hospital Leuven (Leuven), Leuven, Belgium and 17 patients from the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All patients received a mp-MRI exam consisting of a T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI before prostatectomy. Thirty-one features were extracted for each voxel in the prostate. Among these, 29 were from the multiparametric-MRI, one was from the population-based tumor probability atlas and one from the biopsy map. T2-weighted images of each patient were registered to whole-mount section pathology slices to obtain the ground truth. The study was validated in two settings: single-center (training and test sets were from the same cohort); and cross-center (training and test sets were from different cohorts). In addition, automatic delineations created by our model were compared with manual tumor delineations done by six different teams on a subset of Leuven cohort including 15 patients. RESULTS: In the single-center setting, mp-MRI-based features yielded area under the ROC curves (AUC) of 0.690 on a pooled set of patients from both cohorts. Including prevalence into mp-MRI-based features increased the AUC to 0.751 and including all features achieved the best performance with AUC of 0.775. Using all features always showed better results when varying the size of the training set. In addition, its performance is comparable with the average performance of six teams delineating the tumors manually. The error rate using all features was 0.22. The two prior knowledge features ranked among the top four most important features out of the 31 features. In the cross-center setting, combining all features also yielded the best performance in terms of the mean AUC of 0.777 on the pooled set of patients from both cohorts. In addition, the difference in performance between the single-center setting and cross-center setting was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed significant improvements when including prior knowledge features in addition to mp-MRI-based features in both single- and cross-center settings.

Incorporation of an invasive plant into a native insect herbivore food web.

The integration of invasive species into native food webs represent multifarious dynamics of ecological and evolutionary processes. We document incorporation of Prunus serotina (black cherry) into native insect food webs. We find that P. serotina harbours a herbivore community less dense but more diverse than its native relative, P. padus (bird cherry), with similar proportions of specialists and generalists. While herbivory on P. padus remained stable over the past century, that on P. serotina gradually doubled. We show that P. serotina may have evolved changes in investment in cyanogenic glycosides compared with its native range. In the leaf beetle Gonioctena quinquepunctata, recently shifted from native Sorbus aucuparia to P. serotina, we find divergent host preferences on Sorbus- versus Prunus-derived populations, and weak host-specific differentiation among 380 individuals genotyped for 119 SNP loci. We conclude that evolutionary processes may generate a specialized herbivore community on an invasive plant, allowing prognoses of reduced invasiveness over time. On the basis of the results presented here, we would like to caution that manual control might have the adverse effect of a slowing down of processes of adaptation, and a delay in the decline of the invasive character of P. serotina.

A tumour control probability model for radiotherapy of prostate cancer using magnetic resonance imaging-based apparent diffusion coefficient maps.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Standard tumour control probability (TCP) models assume uniform tumour cell density across the tumour. The aim of this study was to develop an individualised TCP model by including index-tumour regions extracted form multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps-based cell density distributions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ADC maps in a series of 20 prostate cancer patients were applied to estimate the initial number of cells within each voxel, using three different approaches for the relation between ADC values and cell density: a linear, a binary and a sigmoid relation. All TCP models were based on linear-quadratic cell survival curves assuming α/ß=1.93Gy (consistent with a recent meta-analysis) and α set to obtain a 70% of TCP when 77Gy was delivered to the entire prostate in 35 fractions (α=0.18Gy(-1)). RESULTS: Overall, TCP curves based on ADC maps showed larger differences between individuals than those assuming uniform cell densities. The range of the dose required to reach 50% TCP across the patient cohort was 20.1Gy, 18.7Gy and 13.2Gy using an MRI-based voxel density (linear, binary and sigmoid approach, respectively), compared to 4.1Gy using a constant density. CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of tumour-index information together with ADC maps-based cell density increases inter-patient tumour response differentiation for use in prostate cancer RT, resulting in TCP curves with a larger range in D50% across the cohort compared with those based on uniform cell densities.

Magnetic resonance imaging for prostate cancer radiotherapy.

For radiotherapy of prostate cancer, MRI is used increasingly for delineation of the prostate gland. For focal treatment of low-risk prostate cancer or focal dose escalation for intermediate and high-risk cancer, delineation of the tumor is also required. While multi-parametric MRI is well established for detection of tumors and for staging of the disease, delineation of the tumor inside the prostate is not common practice. Guidelines, such as the PI-RADS classification, exist for tumor detection and staging, but no such guidelines are available for tumor delineation. Indeed, interobserver studies show substantial variation in tumor contours. Computer-aided tumor detection and delineation may help improve the robustness of the interpretation of multi-parametric MRI data. Comparing the performance of an earlier developed model for tumor segmentation with expert delineations, we found a significant correlation between tumor probability in a voxel and the number of experts identifying this voxel as tumor. This suggests that the model agrees with 'the wisdom of the crowd', and thus could serve as a reference for individual physicians in their decision making. With multi-parametric MRI it becomes feasible to revisit the GTV-CTV concept in radiotherapy of prostate cancer. While detection of index lesions is quite reliable, contouring variability and the low sensitivity to small lesions suggest that the remainder of the prostate should be treated as CTV. Clinical trials that investigate the options for dose differentiation, for example with dose escalation to the visible tumor or dose reduction to the CTV, are therefore warranted.

Long-lasting effects of dexamethasone on immune cells and wound healing in the zebrafish.

This study assessed the lasting impact of dexamethasone (DEX) exposure during early development on tissue repair capacity at later life stages (5, 14, and 24 days post fertilization [dpf]) in zebrafish larvae. Using the caudal fin amputation model, we show that prior exposure to DEX significantly delays but does not prevent wound healing at all life stages studied. DEX-induced impairments on wound healing were fully restored to normal levels with longer post amputation recovery time. Further analyses revealed that DEX mainly exerted its detrimental effects in the early phase (0-5 hours) of wound-healing process. Specifically, we observed the following events: (1) massive amount of cell death both by necrosis and apoptosis; (2) significant reduction in the number as well as misplacement of macrophages at the wound site; (3) aberrant migration and misplacement of neutrophils and macrophages at the wound site. These events were accompanied by significant (likely compensatory) changes in the expression of genes involved in tissue patterning, including up-regulation of FKBP5 6 hours post DEX exposure and that of Wnt3a and RARγ at 24 hours post amputation. Taken together, this study provides evidence that DEX exposure during early sensitive periods of development appears to cause permanent alterations in the cellular/molecular immune processes that are involved in the early phase of wound healing in zebrafish. These findings are consistent with previous studies showing that antenatal course of DEX is associated with immediate and lasting alterations of the immune system in rodent models and humans. Therefore, the current findings support the use of the larval zebrafish model to study the impact of stress and stress hormone exposure in immature organisms on health risks in later life.

Prostate tumor delineation using multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging: Inter-observer variability and pathology validation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Boosting the dose to the largest (dominant) lesion in radiotherapy of prostate cancer may improve treatment outcome. The success of this approach relies on the detection and delineation of tumors. The agreement among teams of radiation oncologists and radiologists delineating lesions on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) was assessed by measuring the distances between observer contours. The accuracy of detection and delineation was determined using whole-mount histopathology specimens as reference. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Six observer teams delineated tumors on mp-MRI of 20 prostate cancer patients who underwent a prostatectomy. To assess the inter-observer agreement, the inter-observer standard deviation (SD) of the contours was calculated for tumor sites which were identified by all teams. RESULTS: Eighteen of 89 lesions were identified by all teams, all were dominant lesions. The median histological volume of these was 2.4cm(3). The median inter-observer SD of the delineations was 0.23cm. Sixty-six of 69 satellites were missed by all teams. CONCLUSION: Since all teams identify most dominant lesions, dose escalation to the dominant lesion is feasible. Sufficient dose to the whole prostate may need to be maintained to prevent under treatment of smaller lesions and undetected parts of larger lesions.

Tactile localization depends on stimulus intensity.

Few experimental data are available about the influence of stimulus intensity on localization of cutaneous stimuli. The localization behavior of an individual as function of the veridical stimulus sites can be represented in the form of a perceptual map. It is unknown how the intensity of cutaneous stimuli influences these perceptual maps. We investigated the effect of stimulus intensity on trial-to-trial localization variability and on perceptual maps. We applied non-painful electrocutaneous stimuli of three different intensities through seven surface electrodes on the lower arm of healthy participants. They localized the stimuli on a tablet monitor mounted directly above their arm, on which a photograph of this arm was presented. The length of the arm over which the stimuli were localized was contracted when compared to the real electrode positions. This length increased toward veridical with increasing stimulus intensity. The trial-to-trial variance of the localizations dropped significantly with increasing intensity. Furthermore, localization biases of individual stimulus positions were shown to decrease with increasing stimulus intensity. We conclude that tactile stimuli are localized closer to veridical with increasing intensity in two respects: the localizations become more consistent and more accurate.

Reproducibility of somatosensory spatial perceptual maps.

Various studies have shown subjects to mislocalize cutaneous stimuli in an idiosyncratic manner. Spatial properties of individual localization behavior can be represented in the form of perceptual maps. Individual differences in these maps may reflect properties of internal body representations, and perceptual maps may therefore be a useful method for studying these representations. For this to be the case, individual perceptual maps need to be reproducible, which has not yet been demonstrated. We assessed the reproducibility of localizations measured twice on subsequent days. Ten subjects participated in the experiments. Non-painful electrocutaneous stimuli were applied at seven sites on the lower arm. Subjects localized the stimuli on a photograph of their own arm, which was presented on a tablet screen overlaying the real arm. Reproducibility was assessed by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for the mean localizations of each electrode site and the slope and offset of regression models of the localizations, which represent scaling and displacement of perceptual maps relative to the stimulated sites. The ICCs of the mean localizations ranged from 0.68 to 0.93; the ICCs of the regression parameters were 0.88 for the intercept and 0.92 for the slope. These results indicate a high degree of reproducibility. We conclude that localization patterns of non-painful electrocutaneous stimuli on the arm are reproducible on subsequent days. Reproducibility is a necessary property of perceptual maps for these to reflect properties of a subject's internal body representations. Perceptual maps are therefore a promising method for studying body representations.

Subject-level differences in reported locations of cutaneous tactile and nociceptive stimuli.

Recent theoretical advances on the topic of body representations have raised the question whether spatial perception of touch and nociception involve the same representations. Various authors have established that subjective localizations of touch and nociception are displaced in a systematic manner. The relation between veridical stimulus locations and localizations can be described in the form of a perceptual map; these maps differ between subjects. Recently, evidence was found for a common set of body representations to underlie spatial perception of touch and slow and fast pain, which receive information from modality specific primary representations. There are neurophysiological clues that the various cutaneous senses may not share the same primary representation. If this is the case, then differences in primary representations between touch and nociception may cause subject-dependent differences in perceptual maps of these modalities. We studied localization of tactile and nociceptive sensations on the forearm using electrocutaneous stimulation. The perceptual maps of these modalities differed at the group level. When assessed for individual subjects, the differences localization varied in nature between subjects. The agreement of perceptual maps of the two modalities was moderate. These findings are consistent with a common internal body representation underlying spatial perception of touch and nociception. The subject level differences suggest that in addition to these representations other aspects, possibly differences in primary representation and/or the influence of stimulus parameters, lead to differences in perceptual maps in individuals.

A system for inducing concurrent tactile and nociceptive sensations at the same site using electrocutaneous stimulation.

Studies of the interaction between mechanoception and nociception would benefit from a method for stimulation of both modalities at the same location. For this purpose, we developed an electrical stimulation device. Using two different electrode geometries, discs and needles, the device is capable of inducing two distinct stimulus qualities, dull and sharp, at the same site on hairy skin. The perceived strength of the stimuli can be varied by applying stimulus pulse trains of different lengths. We assessed the perceived stimulus qualities and intensities of the two electrode geometries at two levels of physical stimulus intensity. In a first series of experiments, ten subjects participated in two experimental sessions. The subjects reported the perceived quality and intensity of four different stimulus classes on visual analogue scales (VASs). In a second series, we added a procedure in which subjects assigned descriptive labels to the stimuli. We assessed the reproducibility of the VAS scores by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients. The results showed that subjects perceived stimuli delivered through the disc electrodes as dull and those delivered through the needles as sharp. Increasing the pulse train length increased the perceived stimulus intensities without decreasing the difference in quality between the electrode types. The intraclass correlation coefficients for the VAS scores ranged from .75 to .95. The labels that were assigned for the two electrode geometries corresponded to the descriptors for nociception and touch reported by other researchers. We concluded that our device is capable of reliably inducing tactile and nociceptive sensations of controllable intensity at the same skin site.

The transcriptional response to chronic stress and glucocorticoid receptor blockade in the hippocampal dentate gyrus.

The dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus plays a crucial role in learning and memory. This subregion is unique in its ability to generate new neurons throughout life and integrate these new neurons into the hippocampal circuitry. Neurogenesis has further been implicated in hippocampal plasticity and depression. Exposure to chronic stress affects DG function and morphology and suppresses neurogenesis and long-term potentiation (LTP) with consequences for cognition. Previous studies demonstrated that glucocorticoid receptor (GR) blockade by a brief treatment with the GR antagonist mifepristone (RU486) rapidly reverses the stress and glucocorticoid effects on neurogenesis. The molecular pathways underlying both the stress-induced effects and the RU486 effects on the DG are, however, largely unknown. The aim of this study was therefore (1) to investigate by microarray analysis which genes and pathways in the DG are sensitive to chronic stress and (2) to investigate to what extent blockade of GR can normalize these stress-induced effects on DG gene expression. Chronic stress exposure affected the expression of 90 genes in the DG (P < 0.01), with an overrepresentation of genes involved in brain development and morphogenesis and synaptic transmission. RU486 treatment of stressed animals affected expression of 107 genes; however, mostly different genes than those responding to stress. Interestingly, we found CREBBP to be normalized by RU486 treatment to levels observed in control animals, suggesting that CREB-signaling may play a central role in mediating the chronic stress effects on neurogenesis, LTP and calcium currents. The identified genetic pathways provide insight into the stress-induced adaptive plasticity of the hippocampal DG that is so central in learning and memory and will direct future studies on the functional outcome and modulation of these stress effects.

Hippocampal CA1 region shows differential regulation of gene expression in mice displaying extremes in behavioral sensitization to amphetamine: relevance for psychosis susceptibility?

RATIONALE: Psychosis susceptibility is mediated in part by the dopaminergic neurotransmitter system. In humans, individual differences in vulnerability for psychosis are reflected in differential sensitivity for psychostimulants such as amphetamine. We hypothesize that the same genes and pathways underlying behavioral sensitization in mice are also involved in the vulnerability to psychosis. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current study was to investigate which genes and pathways may contribute to behavioral sensitization in different dopaminergic output areas in the mouse brain. METHODS: We took advantage of the naturally occurring difference in psychostimulant sensitivity in DBA/2 mice and selected animals displaying extremes in behavioral sensitization to amphetamine. Subsequently, the dopamine output areas, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) area of the hippocampus, were isolated by laser microdissection and subjected to DNA microarray analysis 1 h after a challenge dose of amphetamine. RESULTS: A large number of genes with differential expression between high and low responders were identified, with no overlap between brain regions. Validation of these gene expression changes with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction demonstrated that the most robust and reproducible effects on gene expression were in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Interestingly, many of the validated genes in CA1 are members of the cAMP response element (CRE) family and targets of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and myocyte enhancer factor 2 (Mef2) transcription factors. CONCLUSION: We hypothesize that CRE, Mef2, and GR signaling form a transcription regulating network, which underlies differential amphetamine sensitivity, and therefore, may play an important role in susceptibility to psychosis.

Patterns of avoidance behaviours in the light/dark preference test in young juvenile zebrafish: a pharmacological study.

The light/dark preference test is commonly used to assess anxiety-like phenotypes and validate the pharmacological effects of neuroactive compounds. This test has been recently adapted for adult zebrafish but has not yet been characterized and pharmacologically validated for young juvenile zebrafish. In the present study, we provide a detailed description of the pattern of exploratory behaviours encountered in juvenile zebrafish when exposed to the light/dark preference test. We report that juveniles display strong dark-avoidance behaviours in this test. Specifically, juveniles spent significantly less time, displayed high latency to enter and moved significantly less in the dark compartment relative to the white compartment of the testing apparatus. The expression of these dark-avoidance behaviours was significantly attenuated and increased by commonly used anxiolytic (diazepam, buspirone, ethanol) and anxiogenic (caffeine but not FG-7142) drugs, respectively. We also show that the expression of dark-avoidance behaviours can be significantly reduced in a manner similar to what is achieved with anxiolytic drugs, simply by decreasing the contrast between the white and dark zones, which made the dark zone less dark. Taken together, these findings provide the first pharmacological validation of the light/dark preference test for juvenile zebrafish and ascertain the nature of dark-avoidance behaviours as anxiety-like behaviours in young juvenile zebrafish. This behavioural-based assay is also versatile and can accommodate drug screening of both anxiolytic and anxiogenic compounds while eventually amenable to automation and high-throughput capacity in a near future.

The use of the zebrafish model in stress research.

The study of the causes and mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders requires the use of non-human models for the test of scientific hypotheses as well as for use in pre-clinical drug screening and discovery. This review argues in favor of the use of zebrafish as a novel animal model to study the impact of early (stressful) experiences on the development of differential stress phenotypes in later life. This phenomenon is evolutionary conserved among several vertebrate species and has relevance to the etiology of psychiatric disorders. Why do we need novel animal models? Although significant progress has been achieved with the use of traditional mammalian models, there are major pitfalls associated with their use that impedes progress on two major fronts: 1) uncovering of the molecular mechanisms underlying aspects of compromised (stress-exposed) brain development relevant to the etiology of psychiatric disorders, and 2) ability to develop high-throughput technology for drug discovery in the field of psychiatry. The zebrafish model helps resolve these issues. Here we present a conceptual framework for the use of zebrafish in stress research and psychiatry by addressing three specific domains of application: 1) stress research, 2) human disease mechanisms, and 3) drug discovery. We also present novel methodologies associated with the development of the zebrafish stress model and discuss how such methodologies can contribute to remove the main bottleneck in the field of drug discovery.