ABSTRACT
This paper aimed at comparing the differences of antidepressant effects of Yueju Pill between the Balb/c mice and C57 BL/6 J mice and analyzing the effects on synaptic transmission in mice prefrontal cortex. Healthy adult Balb/c mice and C57 BL/6 J mice were randomly divided into control group and Yueju Pill group. Control group was treated with saline, Yueju Pill group was treated with single dose of Yueju Pill (13.5 g·kg-1) . The forced swimming test (FST) was measured 30 min after administration. The field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) and long-term potentiation (LTP) of mice prefrontal cortex were detected by the electrophysiological experiment. In FST, the immobility time of Balb/c mice in Yueju Pill group was significantly lower than that in control group (P ＜ 0.01), and the immobility time of C57 BL/6 J mice showed no remarkable difference between Yueju Pill group and control group (P＞ 0.05) . In electrophysiological experiment, the percentage of slope of fEPSP in Balb/c mice in Yueju Pill group was significantly higher than that in control group (P ＜ 0.01), while there was no significantly difference in C57 BL/6 J mice between Yueju Pill group and control group (P＞ 0.05) . The LTP of Balb/c mice in Yueju Pill group was significantly increased than that in control group (P ＜ 0.01), while there was no significantly difference in LTP of C57 BL/6 J mice between Yueju Pill group and control group (P＞ 0.05) . Yueju Pill may display rapid antidepressant effect via increasing fEPSP and LTP in prefrontal cortex of Balb/c mice and then enhancing the synaptic transmission.