Abstract

THE IMPACT OF THE SYNTHETIC FLUOXETINE AND HERBAL ST.JHON’S WORT ON THE FETUS BRAIN OF DEPRESSED MOTHERS TREATED WITH RESERPINE

Faten. M. Elhelw*, Iman Zakaria*, Elham H. A. Ali**, Suzan Abd El-Aziz*

ABSTRACT

Depression has been known as a major public health problem. Women are at greatest risk of suffering from depression during the childbearing years and those may either become pregnant while taking an antidepressant or may need a prescription for one during pregnancy. The present study is aimed to evaluate, the safety of maternal treatment with the synthetic Fluoxetine (Flux) and the herbal St. John‟s Wort (SJW) on the cerebral cortex of mice fetuses of depressed mothers. Pregnant female mice were injected once subcutaneously (S.C.) by 0.1mg/kg of reserpine on day 7 of gestation (GD 7), and received daily 7.5 mg/kg of Flux or SJW by oral gavage from GD 8 to GD 14.The brain of fetuses were excised and prepared for determination of the content of the monoamine neurotransmitters (5-HT, DA & NE), Malondialdehyde (MDA) content, Nitric oxide (NO) content, Glutathione reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) contents. Examination of the cerebral cortex of 18-days-old fetuses maternally received Res + Flux revealed some variations from control. While, the cerebral cortex of 18-days-old fetuses maternally received Res + SJW showed a disruptive appearance of the neuroepithelium compared with that of the normal control fetuses. Both Flux and SJW cross the placenta of mothers and cross the brain barrier of fetuses and revealed remarkable alternations on fetuses. The results showed that treatment with Flux or SJW improve the monoamine contents especially in the brain stem and the oxidative markers.

Keywords: Fluoxetine, St.Jhon?s Wort, depression, the cerebral cortex, monoamine neurotransmitters, MDA, NO, GSH, GSSG.