Behavioral and Biochemical Effects of KXS on Postmyocardial Infarction Depression

Background: Depression and coronary heart disease (CHD) often occur together in clinical practice. As a traditional Chinese medicine, Kai Xin San (KXS) has been widely used for the treatment of emotion related disorders. In the present study, we aimed to explore whether KXS had both antidepressive effects and cardioprotective functions in a rat model of myocardial ischemia (MI) with depression. Methods: A total of 50 SD rats were randomly assigned into five groups as follows: normal control (control group), celiac injection of isopropyl adrenaline (ISO) (MI group), depression (depression group), MI+ depression (model group) and MI+ depression treated with intragastric administration of 370 mg/kg KXS (KXS group). MI was induced by subcutaneous injection of 85 mg/kg ISO. Depression was developed by a 7-week chronic mild stress (CMS) challenge. Behavioral test was conducted before and during the experiment. Echocardiography and biochemical analysis were carried out after 7 weeks of CMS challenge. Results: After 7 weeks of experiment, depression-like behaviors were observed in all the groups except for control and KXS groups, and KXS treatment dramatically increased open-field test scores and sucrose consumption (P