Relationship between antidepressants and glycolipids in the forced swimming test in mice

GalNAc alpha 1-3GalNAc-lipids induce an antidepressive-like effect in mice in the forced swimming test. In the present study, the relationship between the effects of several antidepressants and serum glycolipid reactivities were investigated. The antidepressants imipramine, maprotiline, paroxetine, trazodone and mianserin induced an effect in forced swimming in mice after 1 or 6 h but not 15 min after treatment. The GalNAc alpha 1-3GalNAc-lipid globopentaosylceramide dose-dependently induced the effect only 15 min after treatment, and the glycolipid reactivities were found in the serum dose-dependently at the period that the mice showed the antidepressive-like climbing behavior. The results strongly suggest that glycolipid production, and not the central neurological activities of the antidepressants, induce the antidepressive effect in mice.