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Pterostilbene, an active component of the dragon’s blood extract, acts as an antidepressant in adult rats

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Abstract

Background

Hippocampal neurogenesis has been widely considered as one of the potential biological mechanisms for the treatment of depression caused by chronic stress. Many natural products have been reported to be beneficial for neurogenesis.

Objectives

The present study is designed to investigate the effect of dragon’s blood extract (DBE) and its biologically active compound, pterostilbene (PTE), on hippocampal neurogenesis.

Methods

The male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were used in this study, which were maintained on the normal, DBE and PTE diet groups for 4 weeks before dissection in the normal rat model and behavioral testing in the CUS depression rat model. Meanwhile, DMI-treated rats are subcutaneously injected with DMI (10 mg/kg, i.p.).

Results

Results revealed that DBE and PTE have the ability to promote hippocampal neurogenesis. DBE and PTE also promoted the proliferation of neural stem cells isolated from the brain of suckling rats. Oral administration of DBE and PTE induced the proliferation, migration, and differentiation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in chronic unexpected stressed (CUS) model rats, and improved the behavioral ability and alleviated depress-like symptoms of CUS rats. It was also observed that PTE treatment significantly induced the expression of neurogenesis-related factors, including BDNF, pERK, and pCREB.

Conclusion

Oral administration of PTE could affect neurogenesis and it is likely to be achieved via BDNF/ERK/CREB-associated signaling pathways.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (No. 2013YQ03059514) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81671268, NSFC 81701260).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Yang, Yuanyuan Ran, Zhenzhen Quan, Ran Wang, Qinghu Yang, Qiutian Jia, Heao Zhang, Yanhui Li, Yiheng Peng, JianHua Liang, Yulin Deng & Hong Qing

  2. College of Life Sciences & Research Center for Resource Peptide Drugs, Shaanxi Engineering & Technological Research Center for Conversation & Utilization of Regional Biological Resources, Yanan University, Yanan, 716000, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Yang & Qinghu Yang

  3. Central Laboratory, BeijingLuhe Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 101100, People’s Republic of China

    Yuanyuan Ran

  4. Biomedical School, Beijing City University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Hui Wang

  5. Department of Aging Science and Pharmacology, Faculty of Dental Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Hiroshi Nakanishi

Authors
  1. Liang Yang
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  2. Yuanyuan Ran
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  3. Zhenzhen Quan
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  4. Ran Wang
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  11. Hui Wang
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  13. Yulin Deng
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  14. Hong Qing
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Contributions

YR, LY, QJ, HZ, YL, and YP performed the experiments; YR, LY, ZQ, and QY analyzed the data and prepared the draft; RW, HW, JL, and HN helped for data analyses; YD and HQ designed the experiments; ZQ and HQ approved the final version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yulin Deng or Hong Qing.

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Yang, L., Ran, Y., Quan, Z. et al. Pterostilbene, an active component of the dragon’s blood extract, acts as an antidepressant in adult rats. Psychopharmacology 236, 1323–1333 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-018-5138-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-018-5138-7

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