Effect of sea buckthorn ( Hippophae rhamnoides L. ) oil on chronic mild stress model in mice

Abstract

Background: Stress is one of the physiological and psychological responses of animals to adverse external factors. The stress-related disorders increased rapidly, and a lot of synthetic anti-depressants were introduced to treat stress but their side effects are published. Sea buckthorn berries and their seed oil are a natural power anti-oxidant that has been widely used for the treatment of different diseases for a long time. However, there are few published reports on the antistress effect of sea buckthorn seed oil. Aim: We aimed obtain chronic mild stress model mice that induced external factors and determine of therapeutic response of the sea buckthorn seed oil in the stress model. Materials and Methods: After the habituation for one week, male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into four groups: a healthy control group =8, a negative control group=9, a high dose treatment group =9, and a low dose treatment group =9. To induce chronic mild stress, all of the mice except the healthy control group were subjected to various mild stressors daily for 4 weeks. After 2 weeks of exposure to stressors, stress levels were evaluated through body weight measurements and sugar preference tests. Then, sea buckthorn oil was administered at a volume of 200 µl to the chronic mild stress-induced groups except for the healthy and negative control group via gastric intubation for 2 weeks. Quantitative data were recorded as mean ±SD. The significance of variation of data between groups changes was analyzed using Prism 9 software, and statistical tests including two-way ANOVA, T-test, and Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests. Results: The healthy control group showed a significant increase in body weight while the negative control group did not. In the high-dose treatment group, the sugar preference test and the forced swim test showed statistically significant results compared with the negative control group. This result indicated that the chronic mild stress model procedure was effective in duplicating a depressive state and sea buckthorn seed oil had an anti-stress effect. Conclusions: The results of the sugar preference test and the forced swim test indicated that a chronic mild stress model was successfully induced in the experimental mice. The analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups, suggesting that sea buckthorn has an anti-stress effect.