Fig. 4
The effects of tamoxifen on the antidepressant efficacy of BZ formula in mice. Antidepressant analysis was performed using the tail-suspension test after treatment for 7 days. There were ten animals per group. a The antidepressant effect of BZ formula is derived from the Zhimu rather than the Baihe. ICR mice were treated with paroxetine (4 mg/kg), BZ formula extract (4 g/kg), Baihe extract (B, 4 g/kg), or Zhimu extract (Z, 4 g/kg). The control group was treated with an equal volume of physiological saline. The test was performed 1 h after treatment. The duration of immobility over the last four minutes of a total of 6 min was recorded using a video camera and scored using SuperTst software (Shanghai Xinruan Information Technology Co. Ltd). * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01 compared to the vehicle group based on one-way ANOVA. b The antidepressant effect of the main components of Zhimu. Mice were treated with paroxetine (4 mg/kg), timosaponin BII (TB2, 20 mg/kg), timosaponin BIII (TB3, 20 mg/kg), mangiferin (MG, 20 mg/kg), or neomangiferin (NMG, 20 mg/kg). The control group was treated with an equal volume of physiological saline. * p < 0.05 compared to the vehicle group based on one-way ANOVA. (C) The effects of tamoxifen on the antidepressant effect of BZ formula in mice. Mice were treated with paroxetine (4 mg/kg), tamoxifen (4 mg/kg), TB2 (20 mg/kg), MG (20 mg/kg), BZ formula extract (4 g/kg) alone or in combination with tamoxifen (4 mg/kg). The control group was treated with an equal volume of physiological saline. * p < 0.05 compared to the vehicle group based on one-way ANOVA. # p < 0.05 compared to their individual group based on one-way ANOVA. d Body weight changes in ICR mice in the experiment in c. 1: Vehicle; 2: tamoxifen; 3: paroxetine; 4: tamoxifen + paroxetine; 5: BZ formula; 6: tamoxifen + BZ formula; 7: timosaponin BII; 8: tamoxifen + timosaponin BII; 9: mangiferin; 10: tamoxifen + mangiferin. * p < 0.05 compared to the vehicle group based on one-way ANOVA. # p < 0.05 compared to their individual group based on one-way ANOVA