Sprague Dawley rats (male, 9 weeks, 180-200 g) were obtained from the Vital River Co., Ltd (Beijing, China) and maintained at controlled temperature (22±2°C) and humidity (50±10%) with a 12h light/ dark cycle. All efforts were made to minimize the pain of animals. The experimental protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (No.: Kj-dw-18-20150821-01).
2.3 Chronic Restraint Stress
After seven days of acclimatization, rats were divided into five groups (n=10 mice per group), including (1) Normal Control Group (Control), (2) Chronic restraint stress (CRS) Group (Model), (3) Fluoxetine Treatment Group (a positive control, 2.5 mg/kg), (4) High-Dose AF Treatment Group (30 mg·kg-1AF) and (5) L-Dose AF Treatment Group (15 mg·kg-1AF).
Except the control group, rats were restrained in wire mesh restrainers, secured at the head and tail ends with large binder …show more content…
Ethological measures included the frequency of stretched attend postures, head dipping (exploratory movement in which the animal’s head is protruding over the side of the open arm and down toward the floor), and rearing. The total number of enclosed armentries (EAE) was considered as a relative pure index of locomotor activity. Furthermore, the percent of open arm entries (% OAE) and time spent in the open arms (% TOA) were calculated for each rat, considering the following formula: 100 × [open/(open + enclosed)].
2.5.3 Sucrose preference test
Two 200ml bottles of 1% sucrose water were located in every cage at the first 2 days. After 24h food and water deprivation, one bottle of 1% sucrose water and one bottle of tap water were given to the rats in the cage. Finally, the consumption amount of tap water and 1% sucrose agent were determined in the next 1h. The sucrose preference index was calculated according to the following equation:Sucrose preference = sucrose intake (g) / (sucrose intake (g)+ water intake
2.3 Chronic Restraint Stress
After seven days of acclimatization, rats were divided into five groups (n=10 mice per group), including (1) Normal Control Group (Control), (2) Chronic restraint stress (CRS) Group (Model), (3) Fluoxetine Treatment Group (a positive control, 2.5 mg/kg), (4) High-Dose AF Treatment Group (30 mg·kg-1AF) and (5) L-Dose AF Treatment Group (15 mg·kg-1AF).
Except the control group, rats were restrained in wire mesh restrainers, secured at the head and tail ends with large binder …show more content…
Ethological measures included the frequency of stretched attend postures, head dipping (exploratory movement in which the animal’s head is protruding over the side of the open arm and down toward the floor), and rearing. The total number of enclosed armentries (EAE) was considered as a relative pure index of locomotor activity. Furthermore, the percent of open arm entries (% OAE) and time spent in the open arms (% TOA) were calculated for each rat, considering the following formula: 100 × [open/(open + enclosed)].
2.5.3 Sucrose preference test
Two 200ml bottles of 1% sucrose water were located in every cage at the first 2 days. After 24h food and water deprivation, one bottle of 1% sucrose water and one bottle of tap water were given to the rats in the cage. Finally, the consumption amount of tap water and 1% sucrose agent were determined in the next 1h. The sucrose preference index was calculated according to the following equation:Sucrose preference = sucrose intake (g) / (sucrose intake (g)+ water intake