Cerebral ischemia reperfusion exacerbates and pueraria flavonoids attenuate depressive responses to stress in mice

Abstract Previous studies have shown that mice experiencing cerebral ischemia reperfusion (CIR) and stress can serve as a model of post stroke depression (PSD). The present study verified the acute antidepressant effects of radix puerariae extract (PE) on PSD mice through behavior and gene expression experiments. CIR was found to reduce the sucrose consumption and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene expression. PE administration after CIR surgery was observed to significantly enhance the mRNA expression of TH in the hippocampus compared with the PSD group on Day 0 and Day 3 postsurgery. These findings indicate that PE contributes to the amelioration of behavior response in PSD mice, which is closely related with the protective effects of catecholamine synthesize against CIR brain damage.