ABSTRACT
Aim To explore the behavior and CBS /H2 S levels of hippocampus in post traumatic stress dis-order (PTSD)rats and study the effect of exogenous H2 S on PTSD rats.Methods Single prolonged stress paradigm was adopted to prepare PTSD animal model. Morris water maze test was adopted to test space learn-ing and memory ability.CBS /H2 S content in hippo-campus tissue sample was measured using Western blot and methylene blue method.In vivo extracellular single unit recording was used to examine the frequency of spontaneous discharges of hippocampus neurons.Re-sults ① Escape latency increased and quadrant time (%)and platform crossing times decreased in Morris water maze test of PTSD group compared with normal group(P <0.01 ).CBS /H2 S level in hippocampus tis-sue of PTSD group also decreased compared with nor-mal group (P <0.01 ,P <0.05 ).② Escape latency decreased and quadrant time(%)and platform cross-ing times increased in Morris water maze test of NaHS+PTSD group compared with PTSD group(P <0.01 ).③ L-cysteine increased the frequency of spontaneous discharges of hippocampus neurons(P < 0.01 ).Con-clusions Learning and memory ability decrease in PTSD model rats owing to the inhibition of CBS /H2 S content in hippocampus tissue.The mechanism of be-havior improvement of H2 S on PTSD model rat is possi-bly related to the excitation of H2 S on frequency of spontaneous discharges of hippocampus neurons.