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[Antidepressant-like effects of piperine and its neuroprotective mechanism]
Hongbo Liao1, Ping Liu, Yuan Hu
1Depertment of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
Objective:
To observe the antidepressant effect of piperine and its neuroprotective mechanism.
Method:
The behavioral studies were performed in forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). To further explore the mechanisms underlying their antidepressant-like activities, CORT-induced neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells and isolated and cultured neural progenitor cells. By using MTT assay, the effect of piperine on neural cells proliferation was observed.
Result:
The research results indicated that after a week of administration, piperine (10, 20 mg x kg(-1)) could significantly reduce the duration of immobility in both FST and TST. Piperine has the protective effect on neuroblastoma cells and increased proliferation of hippocampus neural progenitor cells.
Conclusion:
In the present study, we demonstrated that the antidepressant-like effects of piperine and its mechanisms might be involved by up-regulation of the progenitor cell proliferation of hippocampus and cytoprotective activity.
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