Research on relationship between abnormal regulation of histone acetylation and depression in rats / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To study the role of histone acetyla-tion and its involvement in the depression-like behav-iors of rats induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS ). Methods Thirty male Sprague Dawley (SD ) rats were randomly divided into control group and model group.The method of solitary condition with CUS for consecutive 28 days was used to establish the rat depression model.The open-field test (OFT)and the forced swimming test (FST)were used to evaluate the depressive behaviors of rats;the real time PCR was used to detect the change of HDAC2 mRNA, and Western blot was used to determine the protein expres-sions of H3,H4,acH3 and acH4 in the prefrontal cor-tex and hippocampus of rats.Results Model group showed obvious depression-like behaviors with decrea-sing locomotive activity in OFT (P <0.01 )and in-creasing immobility time in FST (P<0.01),up-regu-lating the mRNA and protein expression of HDAC2 (P<0.0 1 ),and down-regulating the protein expression of acH3 and acH4 (P<0.01)in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus significantly,compared with control group.Conclusion The mechanism of depressive be-haviors of rats induced by CUS may be associated with down-regulating the level of histone acetylation modifi-cation.