Abstract
Objectives The present study aimed to investigate the antidepressant effect of the traditional Korean medical pharmacopuncture, Liver Qi Depression (HJ11), in a mouse model of depression induced by exposure to chronic immobilization stress (CIS). Methods Mice were subjected to 2 hours of immobilization stress daily for 14 days. They were also injected with distilled water (DW) (CIS + DW) or HJ11 at the acupoints HT7, SP6, and GV20 (CIS + HJ11) an hour before stress. The positive control group (CIS + paroxetine) was intraperitoneally injected with paroxetine (10 mg/kg, 14 days). The tail suspension test and the forced swimming test were performed to assess depression-like behaviors. Western blotting was also conducted to seek the change in brain. Results CIS + DW mice showed significantly longer immobile times in the tail suspension test and forced swimming test than sham mice that did not go through daily restraint. Immobility of CIS + HJ11 and that of CIS + paroxetine mice was significantly decreased compared with immobility of CIS + DW mice. Immunoblotting showed that HJ11 increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor both in the hippocampus and the amygdala. Conclusion HJ11 improves depressive-like behaviors in the stress-induced mouse model of depression, and the results indicate that the neuroprotective effect of HJ11, identified by brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression, may play a critical role in its antidepressant effect.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 402-408 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | JAMS Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017
Keywords
- amygdala
- brain-derived neurotrophic factor
- chronic immobilization stress
- depression
- hippocampus
- pharmacopuncture