Objective To establish an animal model of depression by long-term stress stimulation.
Methods Seventeen C57BL/6J-dimensional 4-week-old mice with a body weight of (11.05±1.65) g were randomly divided into the control group and the long-term mental stress stimulation (LTMS) group. The cats in the LTMS group were housed in a single cage and were frightened for 3 hours and deprived of sleep for 12 hours every day for 21 days. The experimental group judged whether the modeling was successful by measuring changes in food intake, elevated plus maze test, open field test, and forced swimming behavior changes.
Results Compared with the control group, the food intake of the LTMS group was significantly decreased (P<0.01), and the immobility time of forced swimming was significantly prolonged (P<0.01). In the open field test, the number of crossing grids and the number of standing uprights in the LTMS group were significantly less than those in the control group, and the difference was extremely significant (P<0.01). In the elevated plus maze test, the stay time of the closed arm of the mice in the LTMS group was significantly prolonged, and the difference was extremely significant (P<0.01).
Conclusion The long-term mental stress model shows behavioral despair, decreased activity ability, loss of interest, anxiety and clinical symptoms similar to depression, and can be used as a depression model.