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| Dietary l-carnitine as a potential mediator of stress response in juvenile convict cichlids |
| Emma Handelsman, Natalie A. van Breukelen. Goucher College - Biology, Baltimore, MD, United States |
Laboratory animals may be exposed to stressors, either through housing conditions or testing. For both the integrity of the studies (as HPA activation can result in abnormal physiological response), and for animal welfare, there is an interest in mediating these stressful conditions. Since socialization, housing space, and other stress-reducing environmental features may not be viable for some lab conditions, our study investigated the use of a non-pharmaceutical dietary additive as a stress-mediating factor. We supplemented the diet of juvenile convict cichlids for 60 days with the non-essential amino acid, l-carnitine, which has been shown to mediate stress. We exposed the fish to a stressor (live predator) and compared their stress responses to fish fed a lab-typical diet. We measured circulating cortisol before and after the stress exposure using water-borne extraction and ELISA. We compared behavioral stress response after exposure using a modified open field test. We predicted that if l-carnitine is an effective mediator of stress response the experiment group will have lower overall cortisol responsiveness and will display less exploratory behavior in the open field test. |