Figure 2.

Antidepressant-like effects of matrine on the chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model of depression. Mice were exposed to 8 weeks of CUMS and received daily injection of vehicle, fluoxetine (20 mg/kg), or matrine (30 or 60 mg/kg) during the last 2 weeks. The behavioral tests were then conducted. (A) Schematic timeline of experimental procedures. (B) CUMS + matrine mice spent significantly less immobility than that of CUMS + vehicle mice in forced swim test (FST). (C) CUMS + matrine mice spent significantly less immobility than that of CUMS + vehicle mice in tail suspension test (TST). (D) CUMS + matrine mice displayed significantly higher sucrose preference than that of CUMS + vehicle mice. Data are expressed as means±SEM (n=10); *P<.05, **P<.01; n.s., no significance. Comparisons were made by 2-way ANOVA followed by posthoc Bonferroni’s test.