Evaluation of Effects of Ractopamine on Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Locomotory Physiology in Animal Model Zebrafish Larvae

Ractopamine (RAC) is a beta-adrenoceptor agonist that is used to promote lean and increased food conversion efficiency in livestock. This compound has been considered to be causing behavioral and physiological alterations in livestock like pig. Few studies have addressed the potential non-target effect of RAC in aquatic animals. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential physiological response after acute RAC exposure in zebrafish by evaluating multiple endpoints like locomotor activity, oxygen consumption, and cardiovascular performance. Zebrafish larvae were subjected to waterborne RAC exposure at 0.1, 1, 2, 4, or 8 ppm for 24 h, and the corresponding cardiovascular, respiratory, and locomotion activities were monitored and quantified. In addition, we also performed in silico molecular docking for RAC with 10 zebrafish endogenous β-adrenergic receptors to elucidate the potential acting mechanism of RAC. Results show RAC administration can significantly boost locomotor activity, cardiac performance, oxygen consumption, and blood flow rate, but without affecting the cardiac rhythm regularity in zebrafish embryos. Based on structure-based flexible molecular docking, RAC display similar binding affinity to all ten subtypes of endogenous β-adrenergic receptors, from adra1aa to adra2db, which are equivalent to the human one. This result suggests RAC might act as high potency and broad spectrum β-adrenergic receptors agonist on boosting the locomotor activity, cardiac performance, and oxygen consumption in zebrafish. To validate our results, we co-incubated a well-known β-blocker of propranolol (PROP) with RAC. PROP exposure tends to minimize the locomotor hyperactivity, high oxygen consumption, and cardiac rate in zebrafish larvae. In silico structure-based molecular simulation and binding affinity tests show PROP has an overall lower binding affinity than RAC. Taken together, our studies provide solid in vivo evidence to support that RAC plays crucial roles on modulating cardiovascular, respiratory, and locomotory physiology in zebrafish for the first time. In addition, the versatile functions of RAC as β-agonist possibly mediated via receptor competition with PROP as β-antagonist.