Fig. 6

Representative Western blotting of the expression of BDNF from hippocampus of mice treated with saline, desipramine (20 mg/kg) or echinacoside (20, 30 or 40 mg/kg) (A), after echinacoside (30 mg/kg) administration with pretreatment with NBQX (30 mg/kg) or rapamycin (20 mg/kg) (B) and after echinacoside (30 mg/kg) administration with pretreatment with SL327 (40 mg/kg) or MK2206 (60 mg/kg) (C). Echinacoside at 20, 30 mg/kg treatment significantly increases the expression of BDNF (B), which was not observed in mice with other treatments. The densitometry analyses of the blot (normalized to β-actin) verify the enhanced expression of BDNF (B) in the echinacoside at 30 mg/kg administrated group and decreased activities in the NBQX and rapamycin pretreated groups (B). The up-regulation of BDNF was also blocked by pretreatment of SL327 or MK2206 (C). n = 4 each group; *p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney U test; Values shown are mean ± SEM