Evaluation of the face validity of reserpine administration as an animal model of depression--Parkinson's disease association.

The aim of the present study was to develop an animal model for the study of depressive symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). Mice treated intraperitoneally with reserpine (RES), 2.0 and 1.0 mg/kg, or its vehicle (VEHIC) were submitted to the sucrose solution (2%) consumption test (a model employed to mimic the depressive symptoms found in PD) and to the spontaneous locomotor activity test (a model employed to mimic the motor impairment found in PD). All animals were submitted to both tests. Twenty-four hours after treatment, only RES 2.0-treated animals showed a significantly decreased preference for the sucrose solution (mean +/- S.E.M. RES 2.0 = 54.4 +/- 4.1%, RES 1.0 = 68.5 +/- 2.5%, VEHIC = 62.3 +/- 4.1%). There was no significant difference among groups in water, sucrose or total fluid consumption. Locomotor activity was significantly decreased by both RES doses (number of beam interruptions: RES 2.0 = 59.9 +/- 11.4, RES 1.0 = 82.2 +/- 9.7, VEHIC = 116.8 +/- 8.2). Thus, RES 2.0 administration to mice induced depressive (anhedonia) and motor (decreased locomotor activity) symptoms of depression-PD association. This suggests that the RES model shows an important aspect of face validity for the depressive state associated with PD, i.e., phenomenological similarities between the model and the situation being modeled.