• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.603-610
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• 2020

Background: Depression is a common neuropsychiatric disease that shows astrocyte pathology. Ginsenoside Rf (G-Rf) is a saponin found in Panax ginseng which has been used to treat neuropsychiatric diseases. We aimed to investigate antidepressant properties of G-Rf when introduced into the L-alphaaminoadipic acid (L-AAA)-infused mice model which is representative of a major depressive disorder that features diminished astrocytes in the brain. Methods: L-AAA was infused into the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of mice to induce decrease of astrocytes. Mice were orally administered G-Rf (20 mg/kg) as well as vehicle only or imipramine (20 mg/kg) as controls. Depression-like behavior of mice was evaluated using forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). We observed recovery of astroglial impairment and increased proliferative cells in the PFC and its accompanied change in the hippocampus by Western blot and immunohistochemistry to assess the effect of G-Rf. Results: After injection of L-AAA into the PFC, mice showed increased immobility time in FST and TST and loss of astrocytes without significant neuronal change in the PFC. G-Rf-treated mice displayed significantly more decreased immobility time in FST and TST than did vehicle-treated mice, and their immobility time almost recovered to those of the sham mice and imipramine-treated mice. G-Rf upregulated glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression and Ki-67 expression in the PFC reduced by L-AAA and also alleviated astroglial change in the hippocampus. Conclusion: G-Rf markedly reversed depression-like behavioral changes and exhibited protective effect against the astrocyte ablation in the PFC induced by L-AAA. These protective properties suggest that G-Rf might be a therapeutic agent for major depressive disorders.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.461-465
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• 2015

Microglia, the resident macrophages in the central nervous system, can rapidly respond to pathological insults. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is a pattern recognition receptor that plays a fundamental role in pathogen recognition and activation of innate immunity. Although many previous studies have suggested that TLR2 contributes to microglial activation and subsequent pathogenesis following brain tissue injury, it is still unclear whether TLR2 has a role in microglia dynamics in the resting state or in immediate-early reaction to the injury in vivo. By using in vivo two-photon microscopy imaging and $Cx3cr1^{GFP/+}$ mouse line, we first monitored the motility of microglial processes (i.e. the rate of extension and retraction) in the somatosensory cortex of living TLR2-KO and WT mice; Microglial processes in TLR2-KO mice show the similar motility to that of WT mice. We further found that microglia rapidly extend their processes to the site of local tissue injury induced by a two-photon laser ablation and that such microglial response to the brain injury was similar between WT and TLR2-KO mice. These results indicate that there are no differences in the behavior of microglial processes between TLR2-KO mice and WT mice when microglia is in the resting state or encounters local injury. Thus, TLR2 might not be essential for immediate-early microglial response to brain tissue injury in vivo.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 1967

An experiment was designed to see if the hippocampus exerts any influence upon the aggressive behavior of male rats. Fighting between rats was observed for the estimation of aggressiveness. Seventeen rats in which the hippocampus was almost totally removed through a small hole with a diameter around 3 mm made in the neocortex at the boundary between the parietal and occipital lobes (hippocampal group), 8 rats with similar neocortical damage alone (operated control group), and 17 normal control rats (normal group) were prepared and subjected to the experiment 3 months after the operation. Applying electric shock of short duration to the feet in a box with grid floor, a fight was provoked between an animal belonging to the hippocampal group and one belonging to the nor-mal group, between a rat of the hippocampal group and one of the operated control group, and also between a rat of the operated control group and one of the normal group. Three observers judged the performance of each animal independently and described it as winning, defeated, tied, or non-fighting. Fifteen shocked trials were administered to each pair of animals with around 2 minutes' interval between each trial. An animal received a 'judging score' of 3 when it won more frequently than was defeated, a judging score of 2 when it won as frequently as was defeated, when all fights were tied, or when no fighting occurred, while it received a judging score of 1 when it won less frequently than was defeated. Group differences in performances were analyzed in terms of judging score using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for one sample. The results obtained were as follows: 1. In the fights between the hippocampal and the normal groups, the hippocampal animals made significantly better judging scores than the normal animals did (Table 1). 2. There was no significant difference between the hippocampal and the operated control group as to the judging scores they made in the course of fights between the two groups. However, the hippocampal animals tended to dominate over the operated control group as judged by comparing the total 'winning' of the former (30) to that of the latter (14) (Table 2). 3. The total judging score made by the operated control group in the course of the fights against the normal group was not significantly superior to that made by the normal group (Table 3). It was inferred from the above results that, though inconspicuous, the hippocampus tended to exert an inhibitory influence upon the aggressive behavior of male rats.