Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a Model for Sprint Exercise Training.

Sprint performance is important ecologically and physiologically, and it can influence fitness by determining outcomes of predator-prey relationships, for example, and it can confer substantial human health benefits. In this article we test whether zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a suitable model to test hypotheses about the effects and consequences of sprint exercise training, and the physiological underpinnings of sprint performance. We show that stage 3 c-starts that capture the initial escape response of fish lasting <1 s were repeatable within individuals. In addition, somewhat longer constant acceleration protocols lasting 10 s (U10s) or 30 s (U30s) were highly repeatable within individuals over 3, 6, and 23 days. C-starts within individuals were not correlated with either U10s or U30s, indicating that these measures reflect different physiological aspects of sprinting. Stage 3 c-starts and U10s responded positively to sprint exercise training. Our exercise training protocol (5 × 10 s sprints with 5-min rest periods on 4 days per week for 3 weeks) was based on the human sporting literature, and together, our results indicate that zebrafish are a good model to assess the physiological and behavioral consequences of sprint exercise training.