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Hyperforin alleviates mood deficits of adult rats suffered from early separation
Minghui Zhu1, Chunhua Liu1, Xuan Qin1
1School of Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Neuro-vascular Regulation, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
Insights
Hyperforin (Hyp) treatment reduced anxiety and depression in rats experiencing early separation stress. This natural compound shows promise in mitigating the negative behavioral effects of early life adversity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Early life stress, such as maternal separation, can lead to long-term behavioral deficits.
- Adult-onset anxiety and depression are significant public health concerns with complex etiologies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the therapeutic potential of hyperforin (Hyp) in mitigating anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors in rats subjected to early separation stress (ESP).
Main Methods:
- Wistar rats underwent daily maternal separation from postnatal day 14 for 3 weeks.
- The ESP group received intragastric hyperforin (3mg/kg/day) for 2 weeks starting postnatal day 21.
- Behavioral assessments included the Open Field Test (OFT), Novelty Suppressed Feeding test (NSF), and Forced Swimming Test (FST).
Main Results:
- Rats exposed to ESP exhibited reduced exploration in the OFT's central zone, increased feeding latency in the NSF, and higher immobility scores in the FST compared to controls.
- Hyperforin treatment significantly reversed these behavioral changes, increasing central zone exploration, reducing feeding latency, and decreasing immobility scores in ESP rats.
Conclusions:
- Hyperforin demonstrates anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects in a rat model of early separation stress.
- These findings suggest hyperforin as a potential therapeutic agent for conditions associated with early life adversity and subsequent mood disorders.
Abstract:
In this study, we aimed to explore the effect of hyperforin (Hyp) on adult rats suffered from early separation. Wistar infant rats were randomly divided into three groups: control group (CON), early separation from parents group (ESP), and early separation from parents+treatment with 3mg/kg/day Hyp group (ESP+Hyp). Postnatal rats of ESP group and ESP+Hyp group were separated from their mothers for 6h every day on the 14th day after birth, and this separation lasted for 3 weeks, while rats of CON group had no separation. Hyperforin was intragastric administrated on the 21th day after birth, and lasted for 2 weeks in ESP+Hyp group. After separation, adult rats were evaluated by using the open field test (OFT), novelty suppressed feeding test (NSF) and forced swimming test (FST). In OFT, time spent in central grids was much shorter in ESP group compared with that of CON group. After treatment with hyperforin, time spent in central area was much longer compared with that of ESP group. In NSF, the feeding latency of ESP group was much longer than that of CON group. After treatment with hyperforin, the feeding latency was shorter compared with that of ESP group. In FST, score of ESP group was markedly higher than that of CON group. Interestingly, the score was obviously lower in ESP+Hyp group than that of ESP group. In conclusion, these results suggest that hyperforin is able to alleviate anxiety and remit depression in ESP rats.
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