Antidepressant-Like Effects of Lycii Radicis Cortex and Betaine in the Forced Swimming Test in Rats

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of Lycii Radicis Cortex (LRC) and betaine (BT) on immobility and neurochemical change in the forced swimming test (FST) in the rat. LRC, BT or fluoxentine was administered intraperitoneally to Sprague-Dawley rats three times (1, 5 and 23.5 h) before the FST. To investigate antidepressant-like effect, serotonin (5-HT) and norepinephrine (NE) were examined in the hippocampus and hypothalamus of rats. LRC (100 mg/kg) and BT (30, 100 mg/kg) significantly decreased the immobility time in the FST. LRC (100 mg/kg) significantly increased both 5-HT and NE levels in the hypothalamus of rats exposed to FST. BT (100 mg/kg) significantly increased 5-HT levels in the hypothalamus and hippocampus of rats. Taken together, these results demonstrated that improvement in the behavioral changes after LRC and BT administration may be mediated by elevation of 5-HT level in the hypothalamus and hippocampus, indicating a possible antidepressant-like activity. The present results suggest that the efficacy of LRC and BT in an animal model of depression may provide anti-depressant effects in human, which remains to be determined.

Betaine enhances antidepressant-like, but blocks psychotomimetic effects of ketamine in mice

“…On the other hand, D-serine (Malkesman et al 2012) and glycine transporter-I inhibitor sarcosine (Chen et al 2015;Huang et al 2013), which are assumed to potentiate NMDAR function through glycine site, can also improve depression-like behaviors in rodent models and in human depression (Huang et al 2013). Modulation of NMDAR glycine site might be majorly contributed to the rapid and sustained antidepressant-like effect of betaine, although betaine elevated 5-HT levels and has been suggested to be like a traditional antidepressant (Kim et al 2013).…”

“…Based on the structural similarity to glycine, we have examined if betaine can affect the NMDAR function and demonstrated that betaine acts like a NMDAR glycine binding site partial agonist (Lee and Chen 2014). Furthermore, betaine exhibits antidepressant-like effects in rats (Kim et al 2013). Accordingly, it is hypothesized that betaine can promote the antidepressant-like but antagonize the psychotomimetic effect of ketamine.…”

The comparisons of Lycii Radicis Cortex and Corni Fructus water extract effects on streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats

“…. 또한 지골피 성분으로는 cinnamic aldehyde와 다량 의 phenol, betaine, alkaloid, kukoamine 등이 알려져 있 으며 10) , 실험연구로 항우울증 11) , 항산화 12) , 간 보호 10,14) . 산수유의 주성분은 triterpene 계 열인 saponin, ursolic acid, stearic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, oleic acid, morroniside, loganin, valine, tyrosine 등이 알려져 있으며 15) , 생리활성으로 항알러지 16) , 간 보호 17) , 항당뇨 18) , 항염증 19 …”

Protective Effect of Lycii Radicis Cortex against 6-Hydroxydopamine-Induced Dopaminergic Neuronal Cell Death

“…In addition, LRC inhibits hepatic damage induced by CC14 (Cho and Kim ) and depressed state (Kim et al . ) in mice. Furthermore, tyramine derivatives or phenolic amides from LRC exhibit hypocholesterolemic, antioxidative or anti‐inflammatory effects (Cho et al .…”