Efeito da alimentação proteica e do inibidor de tripsina isolado das sementes de tamarindo nos transtornos de comportamento em peixes-zebra com obesidade

Abstract

Excessive food consumption, combined with a sedentary lifestyle and behavioral disorders, are risk factors for the development of obesity, a chronic, inflammatory and multifactorial condition. Its treatment includes lifestyle changes, including diet, physical activity and the use of medications, bioactive compounds and phytotherapeutics. The trypsin inhibitor isolated from tamarind seeds (TTI) is known for its satietogenic and anti-inflammatory properties, and has been shown to be a candidate for evaluation in the treatment of obesity. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of hyperfeeding and TTI on the occurrence of behavioral disorders in obese zebrafish. Thus, the isolation of TTI and its characterization regarding molecular mass and antitryptic activity were initially reproduced. Then, the effect of feeding Artemia sp., offered in different amounts in the presence and absence of TTI, on the triggering of anxiety-like behavior (new tank test), social behavior (school preference test) and acute stress (exposure test to conspecific alarm substance) in obese zebrafish was evaluated. Zebrafish (N=60) with overfed obesity (WOB) (Artemia sp.: 120 mg wet weight/fish/day) and normal-fed eutrophic (NFE) (Artemia sp.: 75 mg wet weight/fish/day) were compared regarding aspects of behavioral disorder. Furthermore, during the 10 days of the experiment, the obese fish were treated with TTI (25 mg/L) (WOB+TTI, n=15), remaining overfed, and with TTI (25 mg/L), being normal-fed (BNF+TTI, n=15). On the 11th day of the experiment, the evaluations were performed and all behaviors were recorded by Logitech HD Webcam, and the videos were analyzed using ANY-maze software. Significant differences were observed in the anxiety-type test, in the average movement speed parameter between fish in the WOB and WOB+TTI groups (p=0.01), as well as between animals BNF and WOB+TTI (p=0.01), in addition to differences, in the time at the top parameter, between fish in the NFE and WOB+TTI groups (p=0.03). In the acute stress test generated by an alarm substance, a significant difference was observed in the immobile time parameter between fish in the NFE and WOB+TTI groups (p=0.01). In the sociability test, the difference was between animals in the NFE and BNF+TTI groups (p=0.01) in the average speed parameter. It was concluded that no sufficient changes were observed to indicate the triggering of anxiety, sociability and acute stress behavior, influenced by overfeeding with Artemia sp. or by TTI in obese zebrafish, since the significant differences were isolated, occurring in one or another parameter, within each test performed. Therefore, under the conditions tested, TTI appeared as a strong candidate for the treatment of obesity, since no changes in behavior were observed, as some medications cited for the treatment of obesity.