Hypericum perforatum treatment: effect on behaviour and neurogenesis in a chronic stress model in mice

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Rosalia Crupi¹  Edoardo Spina²  Salvatore Cuzzocrea²  Angela Marino³  Giuseppina La Spada³  Fortunato Battaglia⁴  Placido Bramanti⁵  Emanuela Mazzon⁵ 

[1] Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Messina, via Consolare Valeria, 98125, Messina, Italy;Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Messina, via Consolare Valeria, 98125, Messina, Italy;IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino-Pulejo", via Provinciale Palermo, 98124, C. da Casazza, Messina, Italy;Department of Life Sciences "M.Malpighi", Section of General Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Messina, via F. Stagno D'Alcontres 31, 98166, Messina, Italy;Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York College of Podiatric Medicine, 53 East 124thStreet, 10035, New York, NY, USA;IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino-Pulejo", via Provinciale Palermo, 98124, C. da Casazza, Messina, Italy;

关键词: Dentate Gyrus;    Dendritic Spine;    Force Swim Test;    Hypericum Perforatum;    Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-11-7

 received in 2010-07-30, accepted in 2011-01-27,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundExtracts of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort) have been traditionally recommended for a wide range of medical conditions, in particular mild-to-moderate depression. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of Hypericum perforatum treatment in a mouse model of anxiety/depressive-like behavior, induced by chronic corticosterone administration.MethodsCD1 mice were submitted to 7 weeks corticosterone administration and then behavioral tests as Open Field (OF), Novelty-Suppressed Feeding (NSF), Forced Swim Test (FST) were performed. Cell proliferation in hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) was investigated by both 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and doublecortin (DCX) immunohistochemistry techniques and stereological procedure was used to quantify labeled cells. Golgi-impregnation method was used to evaluate changes in dendritic spines in DG. Hypericum perforatum (30 mg/Kg) has been administered for 3 weeks and then neural development in the adult hippocampus and behavioral changes have been examined.ResultsThe anxiety/depressive-like state due to chronic corticosterone treatment was reversed by exogenous administration of Hypericum perforatum; the proliferation of progenitor cells in mice hippocampus was significantly reduced under chronic corticosterone treatment, whereas a long term treatment with Hypericum perforatum prevented the corticosterone-induced decrease in hippocampal cell proliferation. Corticosterone-treated mice exhibited a reduced spine density that was ameliorated by Hypericum perforatum administration.ConclusionThese results provide evidence of morphological adaptations occurring in mature hippocampal neurons that might underlie resilient responses to chronic stress and contribute to the therapeutic effects of chronic Hypericum perforatum treatment.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Crupi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.