The response of brain serotonergic and dopaminergic systems to an acute stressor in rainbow trout: a time-course study

Abstract

Summary The brain monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems are known to be involved in the integrated response to stress in vertebrates. However, the present knowledge about the timing of their actions as well as their specific roles in the regulation of the endocrine axes that drive the stress response is incomplete. This is partially because of the complexity of the reciprocal interactions among the monoaminergic systems and other biochemical actors of the stress response such as CRF, AVT, ACTH or corticosteroids. In this study, we show for the first time in teleost fish, the short- and mid-term time-course of the response of the forebrain serotonergic and dopaminergic activities after the exposure to an acute stressor in rainbow trout. Other stress markers like the plasma levels of cortisol, glucose and lactate were also monitored, providing a context to precisely locate the monoaminergic activation within the fish acute stress response. Our results show that the acute stress induced a rapid increase in the forebrain serotonergic activity, which became elevated after only 15 seconds of chasing. Several hours after stress, the serotonergic activity recovered its basal levels, in parallel to the recovery of other stress markers such as plasma catecholamines and cortisol. The dopaminergic activity was also increased after stress, but only in the telencephalon and only after 20 minutes post-stress. The increase in serotonergic activity happened before the elevation of plasma catecholamines, suggesting that this monoamine system could have a key role in triggering the initial steps of the activation of not only the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis, but also the brain-sympathetic-chromaffin axis in fish.