Effect of Albizia julibrissin on Growth and Brain Monoamine Neurotransmitters in Chronic-Stressed Rats

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of Albizia julibrissin on growth and brain monoamine neurotransmitters in chronic-stressed rats. Fifteen rats were divided into three groups including the control group, stressed group and Albizia julibrissin treated group. The rats in both the stressed and treated groups were stressed for seven days, and the rats in the treated group were fed with Albizia julibrissin by gavage administration for 10 days after stress. At the conclusion of the experiment, brain tissues were collected from the three groups to analyze the content of homovanillic acid (HVA), norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). The indices above were determined by high pressure liquid chromatogram (HPLC). The results showed that the daily growth in mass of rats in the stressed group significantly decreased compared with the control group (P=0.011), while the Albizia julibrissin treated group had a higher growth than that of the stressed group (P=0.002). The HVA levels of the hippocampus, striatum and prefrontal lobes in the stressed group were not significantly different from the control group, though there was a tendency for higher levels in the stressed group. The stress had no significant effects on levels of NE, DA and 5-HT. The levels of HVA and DA in the hippocampus in the Albizia julibrissin treated group were significantly higher than those of the stressed group, while DA and 5-HT of the prefrontal lobes and 5-HT of the striatum were significantly lower than the stressed group. These results suggest that Albizia julibrissin alleviates the growth inhibition caused by stress, and regulates the levels of monoamine neurotransmitters of the brain in stressed rats.