Abstract
In this study, we investigated the antidepressant-like effect of piperine in mice exposed to chronic mild stress (CMS) procedure. Repeated administration of piperine for 14 days at the doses of 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg reversed the CMS-induced changes in sucrose consumption, plasma corticosterone level and open field activity. Furthermore, the decreased proliferation of hippocampal progenitor cells was ameliorated and the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in hippocampus of CMS stressed mice was up-regulated by piperine treatment in the same time course. In addition, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) assays showed that piperine (6.25-25 μM) or fluoxetine (FLU, 1 μM) dose-dependently protected primary cultured hippocampal neurons from the lesion induced by 10 μM corticosterone (CORT). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) level of BDNF in cultured neurons. Treatment with piperine (6.25-25 μM) for 72 h reversed the CORT-induced reduction of BDNF mRNA expression in cultured hippocampal neurons. In summary, up-regulation of the progenitor cell proliferation of hippocampus and cytoprotective activity might be mechanisms involved in the antidepressant-like effect of piperine, which may be closely related to the elevation of hippocampal BDNF level.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1373-1381 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Life Sciences |
Volume | 80 |
Issue number | 15 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 20 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Antidepressant
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
- Chronic mild stress
- Hippocampal progenitor cell proliferation
- Piperine
- Primary cultured hippocampal neuron
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics(all)