This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0269881107082898v1 22/6/681    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Viana, A. F. Articles by do Rego, J.-C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Viana, A. F. Articles by do Rego, J.-C. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Effects of acute or 3–day treatments of Hypericum caprifoliatum Cham. & Schltdt. (Guttiferae) extract or of two established antidepressants on basal and stress–induced increase in serum and brain corticosterone levels

¹ Unité de Neuropsychopharmacologie Expérimentale, Faculté de Médecine and Pharmacie, Rouen Cedex, France and Programa de Pós–Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
² Programa de Pós–Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
³ Unité de Neuropsychopharmacologie Expérimentale, Faculté de Médecine and Pharmacie, Rouen Cedex, France.
⁴ Unité de Neuropsychopharmacologie Expérimentale, Faculté de Médecine and Pharmacie, Rouen Cedex, France

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

Since depressive patients present alterations in the hypothalamopituitary– adrenal (HPA) axis that are normalised by antidepressants, this HPA axis has been considered as a target of their actions. We have investigated the mechanism of action of a cyclohexane extract of Hypericum caprifoliatum (HCP), which displays antidepressant like activity, by studying, in mice, the influence of HCP and of two established antidepressant drugs, imipramine and bupropion, administered either acutely or semi–chronically (once a day, three consecutive days), on serum and brain cortex corticosterone levels, either in basal conditions or shortly after a forced–swimming session (FSS). Administered acutely, imipramine (20mg/kg, per os (p.o.)), bupropion (30mg/kg, p.o.) and HCP (360mg/kg, p.o.) significantly reduced the immobility time and had no effects on FSS–induced increase of serum and cortical corticosterone levels. Conversely, 3 days repeated treatment with imipramine or bupropion resulted in a significant reduction of immobility time and FSSinduced increase of serum and cortical corticosterone levels. In a different way, repeated treatment with HCP significantly reduced the immobility time and only cortical corticosterone levels in stressed mice. These results indicate that short–term treatments with antidepressants are sufficient to induce modifications in the HPA axis reactivity to stress; and that apparently HCP has an influence on corticosterone levels by a mechanism diverse from the other tested antidepressants.

Key Words: brain cortex and serum corticosterone, forced–swimming stress, imipramine, bupropion, Hypericum caprifoliatum, mouse

First published on February 28, 2008, doi:10.1177/0269881107082898

Journal of Psychopharmacology 2008;22:681.

A more recent version of this article appeared on August 1, 2008


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?