Gastrodin ameliorates depression-like behaviors and up-regulates proliferation of hippocampal-derived neural stem cells in rats: Involvement of its anti-inflammatory action

• Published in: Behavioural brain research Vol. 266; pp. 153 - 160
• Main Authors: Wang, Huaning, Zhang, Ruiguo, Qiao, Yuting, Xue, Fen, Nie, Huang, Zhang, Zhangjin, Wang, Ying, Peng, Zhengwu, Tan, Qingrong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier B.V 01.06.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Animals; Antidepressive Agents - pharmacology; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Benzyl Alcohols - pharmacology; Benzyl Alcohols - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cells, Cultured; Chronic unpredictable stress; Depression; Depression - drug therapy; Depression - etiology; Disease Models, Animal; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Embryo, Mammalian; Food Preferences - drug effects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gastrodin; Glucosides - pharmacology; Glucosides - therapeutic use; Hippocampal stem cell; Hippocampus - cytology; IL-1β; Inflammation; Male; Maze Learning - drug effects; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Neural Stem Cells - drug effects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Rats; Stress, Psychological - complications; Sucrose - administration & dosage; Swimming - psychology; Up-Regulation - drug effects; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; CUS; Chronic unpredictable stress; MWM; IL-1RA; FST; Depression; Inflammation; Hippocampal stem cell; IL-1β; NSCs; NF-κB; IL-1R1; p-iκB; SPT; Gastrodin; GAS; BrdU; Mood disorder; Cell proliferation; Rat; Stem cell; Cytokine; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Antiinflammatory agent; Interleukin 1β; Stress; Encephalon; Vertebrata; Chronic; Mammalia; Animal; Behavior; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.02.046

•We investigated early intervention effects of gastrodin on CUS rats’ behaviour.•It reduced depressive-like behaviour and promoted hippocampal and stem cell proliferation.•It also inhibited NF-κB protein expression and IL-1β level in the hippocampus.•Moreover, it protected the viability of NSCs from IL-1β-induced damage.•The findings support gastrodin as a newly antidepressant. Gastrodin (GAS), an active constituent of the Chinese herbal medicine tianma, has antidepressant-like activity in animals but no specific molecular mechanisms have been identified. In the present study, chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) was used to establish a rat depression model; The sucrose preference test, forced swim test and Morris water maze test were used to assess depression-like behaviors (anhedonia, behavioral despair, motor retardation, and poor spatial memory), and the proliferation of hippocampal stem cells was tested by BrdU immunohistochemistry. The stress and inflammatory responses were assayed by measuring IL-RA, NF-κB, and p-iκB expression by Western blot and IL-1β production by ELISA. Direct and indirect effects of GAS on NSC viable cell number were examined in vitro by WST-1 and BrdU assays. It was found that GAS (200mg/kg daily) reversed all tested depression-like behaviors in CUS model rats and up-regulated NSCs proliferation in the hippocampus. Enhanced expression of p-iκB, NF-κB, and IL-1β by CUS was also reversed by GAS. Moreover, in vitro experiments revealed that GAS alone did not increase the viability of NSCs but protected them from IL-1β-induced damage. These results support the antidepressant and neuroprotective effects of GAS, and GAS may reduce depression-like behaviors by protecting hippocampal NSCs against the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β.