The deleterious effect of stress-induced depression on rat liver: Protective role of resveratrol and dimethyl fumarate via inhibiting the MAPK/ERK/JNK pathway.

This study aimed to uncover the protective potentiality of resveratrol and dimethyl fumarate (DMF) in the liver of a chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression animal model. Resveratrol and DMF significantly alleviated CUMS-induced behavioral abnormalities in stressed rats through improving sucrose preference in sucrose preference test and decreasing immobility time in a forced swimming test. They also mitigated serum corticosterone levels and elevated serum serotonin levels, which were formerly disturbed in CUMS rats. The hepatoprotective effect is evidenced by improvement in hepatic histopathological examinations, as well as normalized serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities. Molecular signaling of resveratrol and DMF was estimated by diminishing hepatic expression of phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Consequently, they improved the hepatic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities as elaborated by the normalization of total antioxidant capacity, glutathione, malondialdehyde, nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor-α, and myeloperoxidase levels. In addition, they inhibited hepatocyte apoptosis as evidenced by the increased expression of B-cell lymphoma 2, the decreased expression of Bax, as well as the suppressed activity of caspase-3. In conclusion, resveratrol and DMF purveyed a significant anti-depressant effect, which may be mediated, at least in part, via inhibiting the MAPK/ERK/JNK pathway in the CUMS rat model.