Down-regulation of monoamine neurotransmitter synthetase expression involved in CUS-induced depression of rats / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To investigate whether chronically un-predictable stress (CUS)-induced depression-like be-haviors of rats is associated with the variant expression of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH)and tyrosine hydrox-ylase (TH).Methods 30 male SD rats were ran-domly divided into depression model group(MG)and control group (CG),the former was established using CUS plus solitary condition for 28 d,whereas the latter was fed normally as five rats per cage without CUS. The open field test(OFT)and the sucrose preference test were used to evaluate depressive behaviors.Both mRNA and protein expressions of TPH and TH in hip-pocampus and forebrain cortex were determined by re-al-time fluorescent quantitative PCR and western blot (WB),respectively.Results MG rats showed obvi-ous depressive behaviors with much lower locomotive activity and sucrose preference than CG.Meanwhile, the mRNA and protein expressions of TPH and TH also significantly decreased in MG rats,compared with CG rats.Conclusion The depression behaviors of rats in-duced by CUS may be associated with down-regulation of TPH and TH expression.