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2000
Volume 21, Issue 9
  • ISSN: 1389-5575
  • E-ISSN: 1875-5607

Abstract

Background and Objective: Maternal separation as an epigenetic agent provokes a severe change in the brain, such as inflammation response, which is a key risk factor for the progression of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study evaluated the preventive effect of hypericin on maternal separation-induced cognitive deficits and hippocampal inflammation. Methods: Here, we reported that pups are subjected to maternal separations for 1 h per day from postnatal days (PND) 1-9 displayed apparent memory impairment in young rats (postnatal day 34) compared to controls group. Furthermore, maternal separation significantly increased inflammation factors in the hippocampus area. Anti-inflammation constituent shed light on treating ASD. Results: In this study, we found that treatment with hypericin (10 and 50 mg/kg) significantly suppresses expression of hippocampal interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in the maternal separation rat model. Also, we found that hypericin prevented the decrease of hippocampal dopamine levels in the offspring of maternal separation rats. Conclusion: The data indicated that hypericin may play a neuroprotective role in hippocampal cell and ameliorates dysfunctions in memory and level of inflammation factor in this autism model. Thus, hypericin could be used as an intervention for treating ASD.

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/content/journals/mrmc/10.2174/1389557520666200727154453
2021-06-01
2025-07-04
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/content/journals/mrmc/10.2174/1389557520666200727154453
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  • Article Type:
    Research Article
Keyword(s): autism; hippocampus; hypericin; inflammation; Maternal separation; memory
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