Inflammation as the Potential Basis in Depression.

There is growing evidence of the association between inflammation and stress-related disorders including depression. The positive correlation between the increased levels of inflammatory cytokines observed in patients with other diseases and the byproduct of the depressive symptoms may be caused by chronic stress. Increased neuroinflammatory responses are capable of activating microglia and astrocytes, which leads to release pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Long-term Treatment with Oriental Medicinal Herb Artemisia princeps Alters Neuroplasticity in a Rat Model of Ovarian Hormone Deficiency.

Artemisia princeps (AP) is a flowering perennial used as a traditional medicine and dietary supplement across East Asia. No study has yet assessed its effects on synaptic plasticity in hippocampus and much less in a model of ovarian hormone deficiency. We examined the influence of chronic oral AP ethanol extract treatment in ovariectomized rats on the induction of long-term depression in a representative synapse (CA3-CA1) of the hippocampus.

CDDO-Imidazolide inhibits growth and survival of c-Myc-induced mouse B cell and plasma cell neoplasms.

Background: Gene-targeted iMycEmu mice that carry a His6-tagged mouse Myc(c-myc)cDNA, MycHis, just 5' of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer, Emu, are prone to B cell and plasma cell neoplasms, such as lymphoblastic B-cell lymphoma (LBL) and plasmacytoma (PCT). Cell lines derived from Myc-induced neoplasms of this sort may provide a good model system for the design and testing of new approaches to prevent and treat MYC-driven B cell and plasma cell neoplasms in human beings. To test this hypothesis, we used the LBL-derived cell line, iMycEmu-1, and the newly established PCT-derived cell line, iMycEmu-2, to evaluate the growth inhibitory and death inducing potency of the cancer drug candidate, CDDO-imidazolide (CDDO-Im).