Fig. 1.

Association of depressive behaviors and RagA-mTOR-p70S6K pathway in LPS challenged mice. a Experimental design. Mice were randomly divided into two groups. Mice in the LPS group received single dose of LPS (0.83 mg/kg) by IP injection while control mice received the same volume of saline at 24 h prior to behavioral assessments and tissue collection. b TST evaluation. The TST assessment measured the immobility time over a period of 6 min. c FST evaluation. The FST assessment measured the immobility time over a period of 4 min. The data were presented as means ± SEM (n = 6), and subsequently analyzed by a two-tailed Student’s t test. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. d Western blot analysis of selected proteins. After 24 h LPS treatment, brain tissues were collected and analyzed by western blotting for RagA, mTOR, phospho-mTOR, p70S6K, and phospho-p70S6K expression, whereas GAPDH was analyzed as control. Representative blot was shown. e Quantitative analysis for protein expression. Western blots in d were determined by a densitometric method. The signals from three independent experiments were presented as means ± SD and analyzed by a two-tailed Student’s t test. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 (LPS vs control)