Sevgi S, Ozek M, Eroglu Lutfiye
Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Capa/Istanbul, Turkey.
Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 2006 Mar;28(2):95-9. doi: 10.1358/mf.2006.28.2.977840.
Stressful life events contribute to the development of many neuropsychiatric disorders including depression and anxiety. Animal studies based on the relationship of stress and depression or anxiety are scarce and controversial. Moreover, neither the neurobiological basis of anxiety and depression nor the mechanisms responsible for neurochemical regulation by stressful stimuli are well understood. This study was designed to investigate the possible contribution of both acute (2 h) and chronic (2 h X 15 d) restraint stress in the generation of anxiety and depression, and also to find out whether nitric oxide (NO) has a modulatory role in these behavioral reactions. Elevated plus-maze and forced swimming test (FST) were chosen for assessment of anxiety and depression, respectively, and N(G)-nitro L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 10 mg/kg), a NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor, and L-arginine (50 mg/kg), a NO precursor, were used to evaluate the role of nitrergic system in restraint exposed rats. The results showed that acute and chronic stress caused depression-like and anxiety-like behaviors in rats and the acute inhibition of NOS by L-NAME prevented these acute and chronic stress-induced anxiogenesis and depression. These data lead to the conclusion that stress and NO seem to be involved in the generation of anxiety and depression.
应激性生活事件会促使包括抑郁症和焦虑症在内的多种神经精神疾病的发展。基于应激与抑郁或焦虑关系的动物研究较少且存在争议。此外，焦虑和抑郁的神经生物学基础以及应激刺激负责神经化学调节的机制都尚未被充分理解。本研究旨在探讨急性（2小时）和慢性（2小时×15天）束缚应激在焦虑和抑郁产生中的可能作用，同时研究一氧化氮（NO）在这些行为反应中是否具有调节作用。分别选用高架十字迷宫和强迫游泳试验（FST）来评估焦虑和抑郁，并使用一氧化氮合酶（NOS）抑制剂N（G）-硝基-L-精氨酸甲酯（L-NAME，10毫克/千克）和NO前体L-精氨酸（50毫克/千克）来评估硝化能系统在束缚应激大鼠中的作用。结果表明，急性和慢性应激在大鼠中引发了类似抑郁和焦虑的行为，L-NAME对NOS的急性抑制可预防这些急性和慢性应激诱导的焦虑症和抑郁症。这些数据得出结论，应激和NO似乎与焦虑和抑郁的产生有关。
