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Fig. 4 | Chinese Medicine

Fig. 4

From: Echinacoside exhibits antidepressant-like effects through AMPAR–Akt/ERK–mTOR pathway stimulation and BDNF expression in mice

Fig. 4

Effects of SL327 (40 mg/kg) or MK2206 (60 mg/kg) on the antidepressant-like effect and Western blotting of pmTOR, pAkt, and pERK of echinacoside (30 mg/kg)-treated mice. The timeline exhibits the experimental procedure under administration of drugs (A). Statistically analysis showed that the effect of reduction of immobility duration in FST resulted from echinacoside treatment is inhibited when the mice were pretreated with SL327 and MK2206 (B) (ANOVA, F(5.54)=7.195, p < 0.001; n=10 per group; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with saline-treated group with Tukey post hoc analysis). Western blot analysis of phosphorylation of mTOR, Akt, and ERK was performed (C). The densitometry analyses of the blot (normalized to β-actin) confirmed the increased activity of pmTOR (D), pAkt (E), and pERK (E) in the echinacoside administrated group. Western blotting shows the increased expression of pmTOR caused by echinacoside treatment is blocked when the mice were pretreated with SL327 and MK2206 (D). The enhanced expression of pAkt (E) is blocked by pretreatment of MK2206, not SL327. The enhanced expression of pERK (F) is blocked by pretreatment of SLE 327, not MK2206. Total levels of Akt, ERK and mTOR were not different among the four groups. n = 4 each group; * p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney U test; Values shown are mean ± SEM

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