Effects of ketamine on depressive symptoms induced by streptozotocin in rats

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-6574.2015.03.014

Abstract：Objective To investigate the effects of ketamine on depressive symptoms induced by streptozotocin in rats .Methods Thirty -six male Wistar rats weighing 180-220 g were randomly divid‐ed into 3 groups ( n =12 each):control group (C group) ,streptozotocin group (STZ group) and ket‐amine 10 mg/kg group (KET group) .Rats in STZ group and KET group were intraperitoneal injected with 60 mg/kg streptozotocin .Twenty -eight days later ,rats were administered saline and 10 mg/kg ketamine ,respectively .Thirty minutes later ,forced swimming test (FST ) was carried out for all the rats ,and the immobility time of FST was recorded .Subsequently ,rats were sacrificed and prefrontal cortex was collected for measuring interleukin-1β(IL -1β) and interleukin-6 (IL -6) by using ELISA kit and brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) by Western blot .Results Compared with C group , rats in STZ group demonstrated significant increase in the immobility time of FST (P< 0 .01)and signif‐icant increased expression of IL -1β and IL -6 and decreased expression of BDNF (P < 0 .05);Com‐pared with STZ group ,rats in KET group showed significant decrease in the immobility time during FST and significant decreased expression of IL -1βand IL -6 and increased expression of BDNF (P< 0 .05) . Conclusions Ketamine has therapeutic effects for treating streptozotocin-induced depressive symptoms , and its underlying mechanism is probably related to the decreased expression of IL -1βand IL -6 and in‐creased expression of BDNF in the prefrontal cortex .