Lee Hwayoung, Won Hansol, Im Jiyun, Kim Young Ock, Lee Sanghyun, Cho Ik-Hyun, Kim Hyung-Ki, Kwon Jun-Tack, Kim Hak-Jae
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
Development of Ginseng and Medical Plants Research Institute, Rural Administration, Eumseong, Republic of Korea.
Int J Mol Med. 2016 Jul;38(1):251-8. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2016.2589. Epub 2016 May 16.
Exposing a pregnant female to stress is a risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders in the offspring. In the present study, we examined the effects of an extract of Valeriana fauriei (VF) root (100 mg/kg/day, administered on postnatal days 35-56) on behavioral patterns as well as protein expression in the prefrontal cortex of the offspring of prenatally-stressed rats. Modified behavioral tests, including the forced swim test, the open field test, a social interaction test and the prepulse inhibition test were performed and many of the parameters were found to decrease in the offspring of the rats exposed to PNS compared with the offspring of the non-stressed rats. Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses of the prefrontal cortex revealed that the downregulation of several neurodevelopmental proteins in the offspring of rats dams exposed to PNS was reversed after treatment with VF extract. These findings demonstrate that the downregulation of several proteins in the prefrontal cortex of the offspring of prenatally‑stressed rats may be associated with subsequent behavioral changes, and that these phenomena recovered following VF treatment. Our results suggest that VF decreases the incidence of prenatal stress related-psychiatric disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia.
使怀孕雌性动物处于应激状态是其后代患精神疾病的一个风险因素。在本研究中，我们检测了缬草（VF）根提取物（100毫克/千克/天，在出生后第35 - 56天给药）对产前应激大鼠后代行为模式以及前额叶皮质中蛋白质表达的影响。进行了改良的行为测试，包括强迫游泳测试、旷场测试、社交互动测试和前脉冲抑制测试，结果发现与未应激大鼠的后代相比，暴露于产前应激（PNS）的大鼠后代的许多参数有所下降。对前额叶皮质进行的蛋白质免疫印迹和免疫组织化学分析表明，用VF提取物处理后，暴露于PNS的大鼠母代所产后代中几种神经发育蛋白的下调得到了逆转。这些发现表明，产前应激大鼠后代前额叶皮质中几种蛋白质的下调可能与随后的行为变化有关，并且这些现象在VF处理后得以恢复。我们的结果表明，VF可降低产前应激相关精神疾病（如抑郁症和精神分裂症）的发病率。
