Figure 4

Fluoxetine was found to improve the depressive-like behaviors of PSD mice through up-regulating BDNF expression. (a) An illustration shows the experimental schedule (upper pannel) and representative image of the lentivirus-infected hippocampus area in the mouse brain (lower pannel). (b,c) Expression of BDNF mRNA (b) and protein (c) induced by fluoxetine treatment was remarkably decreased after transfection with BDNF-shRNA (n = 6 per group, one-way ANOVA followed by Newman-Keuls multiple comparisons). (d,e) In the forced swimming test, fluoxetine treatment induced a decrease in immobility time (d) and an increase in climbing time (e), which were reversed by BDNF silencing (n = 8 per group, one-way ANOVA followed by Newman-Keuls multiple comparisons). (f) In the sucrose preference test, the increase in sucrose consumption induced by fluoxetine treatment was reversed by BDNF silencing (n = 8 per group, one-way ANOVA followed by Newman-Keuls multiple comparisons). Full-length blots/gels are presented in Supplementary Figure 5. **P < 0.01 vs. PSDV group; ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 vs. PSDF-v group. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. PSDV: PSD with vehicle injection group; PSDF: PSD with fluoxetine injection group; PSDF-v: PSDF with non-targeting vector transfection group; PSDF-sh: PSDF with shBDNF-vector transfection group.