Effects of Hesperidin During Pregnancy on Antidepressant-like behaviour in Postpartum Mice

Background: post-partum depression is has higher prevelance among other mental illness and herbal therapies are potential alternatives and adjuncts for its treatment. hesperidin is the major flavonoid isolated from citrus fruits which has neuroprotective, antioxidant and antidepressant activity. objectives: we studied the effect of prepartum administration of hesperidin on postpartum antidepressant- like effects in mice. methods: twelve male and 40 female mice (28-30 gr) were randomly selected and after determination of the pregnancy using vaginal plaque, allocated into 4 experimental groups. group 1 was kept as control and groups 2-4 were i.p. injected with hesperidne (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) on days of 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 of pregnancy. the control group received i.p. injection of the saline on the same days. following postpartum, forced swimming test (fst), tail suspension test (tst) and open field tests were used to evaluate depressive-like antidepressant activity of hesperidin. also, serum malondialdehyde (mda), glutathione peroxidase (gpx), superoxide dismutase (sod) and total antioxidant capacity (tac) were determined. results: based on findings, administration of the different levels of the hesperidin (0.5 and 1 mg/kg) at gd 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 significantly diminished immobility time (s) in tst and fst on postpartum mice in comparison to control group (p≤0.05). pre-partum administration of hesperidin (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) had no effect on oft (p>0.05). administration of the hesperidin (0.5 and 1 mg/kg) during the gd significantly diminished mda levels on postpartum compared to control group (p≤0.05). also, pre-partum administration of the hesperidin (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) significantly increased sod and gpx levels on postpartum mice in comparison to control group (p≤0.05). conclusions: these results suggested pre-partum administration of hesperidin has antidepressant and antioxidant effect in postpartum mice.