Figure 9.

Infusion of LIMKi 3 into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) produced antidepressant-like effects in the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model of depression. (A) Schematic timeline of the experimental procedures. (B) LIMKi 3 notably blocked the CSDS-induced depressive-like behaviors in mice, as revealed by the forced swim test (FST), tail suspension test (TST), sucrose preference test, and social interaction test (n = 10). (C) Both the (CSDS + 100 μM LIMKi 3)-treated and (CSDS + 200 μM LIMKi 3)-treated mice had significantly lower levels of pLIMK1, pLIMK2, and pCofilin in the mPFC than those of the CSDS-treated mice (n = 6). The expression of total LIMK1, LIMK2, and Cofilin in the mPFC remained unchanged among all groups (n = 6). All results are expressed as the means ± SEM; **P < .01; n.s., no significance. The comparisons were made by 2-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s test.