Figure 5.

Intra-prefrontal cortex (PFC) infusion of rapamycin (Rapa) reversed predictable chronic mild stress (PCMS)-induced antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects. (a) Schematic of the timeline for PCMS exposure, drug administration, and the behavioral tests. Vehicle (Veh) or Rapa (0.01 nmol, PFC) was injected 3 h before each behavioral test. All of the behavioral tests were separated by 1 day and conducted sequentially after stress exposure. We assessed the effects of Rapa on (b) depressive-like behavior in the sucrose preference test (SPT), (c) locomotor activity, (d, e) anxiety-like behavior in the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT), reflected by the latency to feed and food consumption during 5 min in the home cages, (f, g) anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM), and (h) depressive-like behavior in the forced swim test (FST). (i) Schematic representation of the injection sites in the PFC. The data are expressed as mean±SEM (n=10 per group). *p<0.05, compared with the control group; ^#p<0.05, PCMS-Rapa group compared with PCMS-Veh group. LA, locomotor activity.