- Academic Editor
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Background: Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms such as
anxiety, sadness, panic attacks, and depression. Malic acid was chosen due to
malic acid has the ability to improve antioxidant activity and improves liver
damage. This study evaluates malic acid anti-depressant activity in the
hypothalamus of stressed rats. Methods: Thirty-six male albino
rats were divided into 2 equal groups; Normal and chronic mild stress (CMS) rats.
Normal rats were divided into 3 equal groups; control, malic acid, and
venlafaxine drug groups: normal rats were administered orally with 1 mL of saline
solution, 250 mg/kg of malic acid, and 20 mg/kg of venlafaxine drug,
respectively. CMS rats were divided into 3 equal groups; CMS, CMS + malic acid,
and CMS + venlafaxine drug: CMS rats were administered orally with 1 mL of saline
solution, 250 mg/kg of malic acid, and 20 mg/kg of venlafaxine drug,
respectively. All the above-mentioned treatments were administered once a day by
oral gavage for 6 weeks. Results: The obtained results revealed that the
animal behavioral tests such as forced swimming test, tail suspension test,
sucrose preference test, and open-field test (center square entries test, center
square duration test, and distance travelled test), norepinephrine, dopamine,
serotonin,