Long-sought biomarker for chronic stress in fish discovered
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - 21:20
in Biology & Nature
A long-sought biomarker for chronic stress in fish has now been discovered. Fish faced with stressful stimuli launch an endocrine stress response through activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI-) axis to release cortisol into the blood. Plasma cortisol is a poor predictor for chronic stress as it reflects no more than a snap-shot of the stress response at a given moment. On the contrary, the scale glucocorticoid, especially cortisol, content was shown to reflect the stress history of the fish, researchers report.