Figure 3.

Effects of pretreatment with NBQX and rapamycin. We evaluated the effects of pretreatment with NBQX (10 mg/kg) and rapamycin (20 mg/kg) on the duration of immobility during the FST and the levels of phosphorylated mTOR, Akt, and ERK in the hippocampus of mice treated with danshensu (10 mg/kg). The timeline for the FST under different treatment conditions is shown (A). Pretreatment with NBQX and rapamycin prevented the danshensu-induced reduction in the duration of immobility during the FST (B; analysis of variance; F[3,28]=14.831; p<0.001; N=8 per group). Compared with saline treatment: Tukey post hoc analysis. Western blotting was performed to evaluate the activation of mTOR, Akt, and ERK (C). Densitometric analyses of the blots (normalized to β-actin levels) confirmed the increased levels of phosphorylated mTOR (D), Akt (E), and ERK (F) in mice treated with danshensu. Pretreatment with NBQX prevented the danshensu-induced increases in the levels of phosphorylated mTOR (D), Akt (E), and ERK (F). Pretreatment with rapamycin blocked the danshensu-induced increase in the level of phosphorylated mTOR (D) but not the level of phosphorylated Akt (E) or ERK (F). N=4 per group. Between-group comparisons were performed using the nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis test, followed by the Conover–Iman post hoc test. Data are presented in terms of the mean±standard error of the mean values. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001. FST, forced swimming test; NBQX, 2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-7-sulfamoyl-benzo(f)quinoxaline; p-mTOR, phosphorylated mTOR; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; p-Akt, phosphorylated Akt; Akt, protein kinase B; p-ERK, phosphorylated ERK; ERK, extracellular signal-regulated kinase.