C-fos Immunohistochemical Study On The Mechanism Of Fasting-Induced Antidepressant-like Effect In Mice

Recent experiments have shown that 5-HT2 receptors may mediate some of the antidepressant effects seen in putative animal models of anxiety and depression.Fasting or food restriction has been shown to reverse most neurologic disorders.However,there is little known antidepressant-like effect of acute fasting.In this study,we investigated the effect of 9 hours fasting on c-Fos expression in four ICR mouse brain regions namely the Amygdala,the Hippocampus,the Prefrontal cortex and the Habenular cortex.The results obtained demonstrated that 9 hours of fasting produces a decreasing effect of immobility time in the forced swim test without changing locomotor activity.In addition,combination of DO1 and fasting increased,while Ketanserin antagonized c-Fos expression.These results indicate that serotonergic system may at least in part,be involved in the antidepressant-like effect of fasting especially through the 5-HT2 receptor.