Building on these investigations, the present study had two goals: first, to develop a method for inducing voluntary ethanol intake in individual zebrafish, which can be used as a model in future studies to examine how this behavior is affected by various manipulations, and second, to characterize the effects of this ethanol intake on different behaviors and the expression of hypothalamic orexigenic peptides, galanin (GAL) and orexin (OX), which are known in rodents to stimulate consumption of ethanol and alter behaviors associated with alcohol abuse.
The neuropeptide galanin is widely expressed in the periphery and the central nervous system and mediates diverse physiological processes and behaviors including alcohol abuse, depression and anxiety.
The neuropeptide galanin is widely expressed in the periphery and the central nervous system and mediates diverse physiological processes and behaviors including alcohol abuse, depression and anxiety.
Animal studies have implicated GAL in alcohol abuse and anxiety: chronic ethanol intake increases hypothalamic GAL mRNA; high levels of stress increase GAL release in the central amygdala.
Animal studies have implicated GAL in alcohol abuse and anxiety: chronic ethanol intake increases hypothalamic GAL mRNA; high levels of stress increase GAL release in the central amygdala.