Zebrafish (Danio rerio): A potential model to assess developmental toxicity of ketamine

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 291; no. Pt 3; p. 133033
• Main Authors: Huang, Wenlong, Wu, Tianjie, Wu, Kusheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2022
• Subjects: Animals; Developmental toxicity; Embryo, Nonmammalian; Health risk; Ketamine; Ketamine - toxicity; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; Toxic mechanism; Zebrafish; Zebrafish; Ketamine; Developmental toxicity; Toxic mechanism; Health risk
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133033

Ketamine is a non-competitive antagonist of NMDA glutamate receptor. It is used as an anesthetic, analgesic, sedative, and anti-depressive agent in clinical practice and also an illegal recreational drug. The increasing use has contributed to the measurable levels of ketamine in both wastewaters and hospital effluents, thereby classified as an emergent contaminant. Lately, the potential toxicity of ketamine has raised serious concerns about its iatrogenic or illicit use during pregnancy, neonatal and childhood stages. However, to assess its long-term toxicity potentially by the use of early life stages in human and rodents is limited. In this regard, the zebrafish has been considered as excellent model organism for biosafety assessments of ketamine due to it boasts an in vivo model with the advantages of an in vitro assay. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the reported toxicity studies with ketamine in early life stage of zebrafish. The adverse effects of ketamine are known to cause overall developmental and multi-organ toxicity, including cardio-, neuro-, and skeletal toxicity. Furthermore, multiple mechanisms are found to be responsible for perpetrating toxicity of ketamine. The current findings confluence to emphasize the zebrafish embryo as an appealing model system for developmental toxicity testing in higher vertebrates. [Display omitted] •Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, anti-depressant and illegal recreational drug.•Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an appealing model organism for toxicity assessment.•Ketamine induces overall developmental and multi-organ toxicities in Danio embryo.•Multiple mechanisms are found to be involved in developmental toxicity of ketamine.•The review highlights concern for the use of ketamine as a pediatric anesthetic.