The critical impact of sex on preclinical alcohol research – Insights from zebrafish

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroendocrinology Vol. 67; p. 101014
• Main Authors: de Abreu, Murilo S., Parker, Matthew O., Kalueff, Allan V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-10-2022
• Subjects: Alcohol; Animal models; Pre-clinical research; Sex differences; Zebrafish; Sex differences; Alcohol; Zebrafish; Animal models; Pre-clinical research
• ISSN: 0091-3022; 1095-6808
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2022.101014

•Sex is an important biological variable in translational neuroscience research.•There are overt sex differences in clinical and preclinical alcohol research.•The use of zebrafish (Danio rerio) in pre-clinical alcohol research rapidly grows.•Here, we discuss zebrafish models to study sex differences in alcohol brain action.
Sex is an important biological variable that is widely recognized in studies of alcohol-related effects. Complementing clinical and preclinical rodent research, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) is the second most used laboratory species, and a powerful model organism in biomedicine. Like clinical and rodent models, zebrafish demonstrate overt sex differences in alcohol-related responses. Collectively, this evidence shows that the zebrafish becomes a sensitive model species to further probe in-depth sex differences commonly reported in alcohol research.