The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may be stressful for people. Public health actions, such as social distancing, can make people feel isolated and lonely and can increase stress and anxiety. As a result, there is a growing interest towards various materials to relieve stress. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the anti-stress effects of ethanol extract of Ziziphus jujuba in PC12 cells treated with corticosterone and its underling mechanisms. Furthermore, the viability of the cells, the apoptosis of the cells, the level of phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (p-ERKs) expression were measured by MTT assay, LDH assay, Hoechst staining assay and western blotting. Our results showed that the extract of Ziziphus jujuba reversed corticosterone-induced damage in PC12 cells, which increased cell viability, decreased LDH release, and attenuated corticosterone-induced apoptosis as compared with the corticosterone-treated group. Therefore, these data suggest that the extract of Ziziphus jujuba could be a good candidate for development as a functional food supplement in the improve the anti-stress effect.
This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(SMEs) and Startups(MSS), Korea, under the "Regional Specialized Industry Development Plus Program(R&D, S3089430)" supervised by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology(KIAT).