Effects of essential oil from Chamaecyparis obtusa on cytokine genes in the hippocampus of maternal separation rats.

We investigated the effects of an essential oil from Chamaecyparis obtusa (EOCO) on early life stress, using maternal separation (MS) rats and a microarray method to analyze the changes in gene expressions caused by EOCO in the hippocampus of MS rats. Rats in the MS groups were separated from their respective mothers from postnatal day (pnd) 14 to 28. Rats in the EOCO-treated groups were exposed to EOCO for 1 or 2 h by inhalation from pnd 21 to 28. The EOCO-treated MS rats showed decreased anxiety-related behaviors compared with the untreated MS rats in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test. In the microarray analysis, we found that EOCO downregulated the expressions of cytokine genes such as Ccl2, Il6, Cxcl10, Ccl19, and Il1rl in the hippocampus of MS rats, and also confirmed that using reverse transcriptase - PCR. In particular, the expressions of Ccl2 and Il6 were predominantly decreased by EOCO in the hippocampus of MS rats. Interestingly, protein expression was also reduced by EOCO in MS rats. These results indicate that EOCO decreases MS-induced anxiety-related behaviors, and modulates cytokines, particularly Ccl2 and Il6, in the hippocampus of MS rats.