Abstract
BackgroundA stressful stimulus is a crucial determinant of health and disease. Antidepressants are used to manage stress and their related effects. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) in restraint stress-induced behavioral and biochemical alterations in mice.MethodsAnimals were immobilized for a period of 6 hr. St. John's Wort (50 and 100 mg/kg) was administered 30 minutes before the animals were subjecting to acute immobilized stress. Various behavioral tests parameters for anxiety, locomotor activity and nociceptive threshold were assessed followed by biochemical assessments (malondialdehyde level, glutathione, catalase, nitrite and protein) subsequently.Results6-hr acute restraint stress caused severe anxiety like behavior, antinociception and impaired locomotor activity as compared to unstressed animals. Biochemical analyses revealed an increase in malondialdehyde, nitrites concentration, depletion of reduced glutathione and catalase activity as compared to unstressed animal brain. Five days St. John's Wort treatment in a dose of 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg significantly attenuated restraint stress-induced behavioral (improved locomotor activity, reduced tail flick latency and antianxiety like effect) and oxidative damage as compared to control (restraint stress).ConclusionPresent study highlights the modest activity of St. John's Wort against acute restraint stress induced modification.
Highlights
A stressful stimulus is a crucial determinant of health and disease
Behavioral measurements (Locomotor, anxiety and analgesic activity) The naïve animals showed the consistent stable locomotor activity and anxiety like behavior and antinociception effect. 6-hr acute restraint stress significantly reduced locomotor activity, anxiety-like behaviors and increased tail flick latency as compared to unstressed group (P < 0.05) (Table 1)
John's Wort (50 and 100 mg/kg) treatment significantly caused anti-anxiety-like behavior and improved locomotor activity as compared to control animals
Summary
A stressful stimulus is a crucial determinant of health and disease. Antidepressants are used to manage stress and their related effects. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) in restraint stress-induced behavioral and biochemical alterations in mice. Stress is a crucial determinant for maintenance of health and disease [1,2]. There are various neuropsychiatric problems such as anxiety, cognitive dysfunction, depression etc, are generally associated with stress. Stress induces changes in emotional behavior, anxiety like state [5] that are associated with oxidative damage i.e. free radical damage [1,2]. The central nucleus of amygdala (CeA) is important in fear conditioning and in modulating affective response to stress [14,15,16,17]
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