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Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level

BACKGROUND: Anxiety levels in rats are correlated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dioscorea (wild yam), a Chinese medicine, on emotional behavior and IL-2 levels in the brain of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. METHODS: One mont...

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Autores principales: Ho, Ying-Jui, Wang, Ching-Fu, Hsu, Wen-Yu, Tseng, Ting, Hsu, Cheng-Chin, Kao, Mei-Ding, Tsai, Yuan-Feen
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1971263/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17688703
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-6-21
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author Ho, Ying-Jui
Wang, Ching-Fu
Hsu, Wen-Yu
Tseng, Ting
Hsu, Cheng-Chin
Kao, Mei-Ding
Tsai, Yuan-Feen
author_facet Ho, Ying-Jui
Wang, Ching-Fu
Hsu, Wen-Yu
Tseng, Ting
Hsu, Cheng-Chin
Kao, Mei-Ding
Tsai, Yuan-Feen
author_sort Ho, Ying-Jui
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Anxiety levels in rats are correlated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dioscorea (wild yam), a Chinese medicine, on emotional behavior and IL-2 levels in the brain of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. METHODS: One month after ovariectomy, female Wistar rats were screened in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test to measure anxiety levels and divided into low anxiety (LA) and high anxiety (HA) groups, which were then given dioscorea (250, 750, or 1500 mg/kg/day) by oral gavage for 27 days and were tested in the EPM on day 23 of administration and in the forced swim test (FST) on days 24 and 25, then 3 days later, the brain was removed and IL-2 levels measured. RESULTS: Compared to sham-operated rats, anxiety behavior in the EPM was increased in half of the OVX rats. After chronic dioscorea treatment, a decrease in anxiety and IL-2 levels was observed in the HA OVX rats. Despair behavior in the FST was inhibited by the highest dosage of dioscorea. CONCLUSION: These results show that OVX-induced anxiety and changes in neuroimmunological function in the cortex are reversed by dioscorea treatment. Furthermore, individual differences need to be taken into account when psychoneuroimmunological issues are measured and the EPM is a useful tool for determining anxiety levels when examining anxiety-related issues.
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spelling pubmed-19712632007-09-08 Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level Ho, Ying-Jui Wang, Ching-Fu Hsu, Wen-Yu Tseng, Ting Hsu, Cheng-Chin Kao, Mei-Ding Tsai, Yuan-Feen Ann Gen Psychiatry Primary Research BACKGROUND: Anxiety levels in rats are correlated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dioscorea (wild yam), a Chinese medicine, on emotional behavior and IL-2 levels in the brain of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. METHODS: One month after ovariectomy, female Wistar rats were screened in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test to measure anxiety levels and divided into low anxiety (LA) and high anxiety (HA) groups, which were then given dioscorea (250, 750, or 1500 mg/kg/day) by oral gavage for 27 days and were tested in the EPM on day 23 of administration and in the forced swim test (FST) on days 24 and 25, then 3 days later, the brain was removed and IL-2 levels measured. RESULTS: Compared to sham-operated rats, anxiety behavior in the EPM was increased in half of the OVX rats. After chronic dioscorea treatment, a decrease in anxiety and IL-2 levels was observed in the HA OVX rats. Despair behavior in the FST was inhibited by the highest dosage of dioscorea. CONCLUSION: These results show that OVX-induced anxiety and changes in neuroimmunological function in the cortex are reversed by dioscorea treatment. Furthermore, individual differences need to be taken into account when psychoneuroimmunological issues are measured and the EPM is a useful tool for determining anxiety levels when examining anxiety-related issues. BioMed Central 2007-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC1971263/ /pubmed/17688703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-6-21 Text en Copyright © 2007 Ho et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Primary Research
Ho, Ying-Jui
Wang, Ching-Fu
Hsu, Wen-Yu
Tseng, Ting
Hsu, Cheng-Chin
Kao, Mei-Ding
Tsai, Yuan-Feen
Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title_full Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title_fullStr Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title_full_unstemmed Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title_short Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
title_sort psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level
topic Primary Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1971263/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17688703
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-6-21
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