TY - JOUR AU - Du, Jianwei AU - Yu, Yanbo AU - Qiu, Liuji AU - Qiu, Mizhen AU - Zhu, Qing PY - 2019/04/30 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Palmatine plays a role in sedation and hypnosis by increasing 5-hydroxytryptamine JF - Cellular and Molecular Biology JA - Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand) VL - 65 IS - 4 SE - Original Research Articles DO - 10.14715/cmb/2019.65.4.11 UR - https://cellmolbiol.org/index.php/CMB/article/view/2846 SP - 69-75 AB - Objective of this study was to investigate the sedative and hypnotic effects of palmatine and to observe whether its mechanism is related to 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and GABA. The sedative and hypnotic effects of palmatine on mice were observed with mouse autonomic activity test, direct sleep test, pentobarbital sodium in suprathreshold and subthreshold dose sleep test. The content of GABA and 5-HT in brain homogenate was determined by ELISA  method. Mouse brain specimens were observed by immunohistochemistry for 5-HT expression in the nucleus of mouse brain. Palmatine could reduce spontaneous activities of mice, prolong the sleep time of mice induced by pentobarbital sodium in suprathreshold dose and shorten the sleep latency.  And it could increase the number of mice falling asleep induced by pentobarbital sodium in subthreshold dose and the incidence of falling asleep, but with no direct sleep effect. In addition, it enhanced the 5-HT content in brain, but had no effect on GABA content, and had no toxicity to PC12 cells. Palmatine plays a significant role in sedation and hypnosis, which may be associated with the increase of intra-cerebral 5-HT.<strong id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody " dir="ltr"></strong> ER -