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  Background & Objectives: Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by derangement in protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Most of hypoglycemic agent used in medicine for diabetes treatment are reported to have side effects for long run. On the other hand, increase in oxidative stress is effective in the genesis of diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of alcoholic extract of Euphorbia cyparissias on serum glucose and antioxidant enzymes level in diabetic male rats.

  Methods : In this study, 40 adult male Wistar rats weighting 250±20 grams divided into four groups randomly: control, diabetic animals, treatment 1 and treatment 2 which received 500 and 250 mg/kg of E.cyparissias extract for 21 days by gastric gavage, respectively. At the end of the treatment, level of antioxidant enzymes including TAC, MDA, SOD and GPX and also blood glucose were determined in animal's serum.

  Results : The blood glucose levels were significantly lowered in the group of treatment 1 compared to diabetic group (p<0.05). Results showed that MDA level of serum was increased significantly in diabetic group in comparison with control group (p<0.05). Furthermore, the TAC, SOD and GPX level were increased significantly in the group of treatment 1 compared to diabetic group (p<0.05).

  Conclusion : This study showed that oral administration of E.cyparissias extract has antidiabetic and antioxidant activity in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.

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Background & objectives: Depression is a common and debilitating brain disorder and a type of psychiatric syndromes. The most common symptoms of this disease are irritability, worthlessness, sleep problems and anxiety disorders. Reserpine is a drug that can cause depression in animals if used at a very low dose. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective non-pharmacological treatments for depression. In this study, the effect of electroconvulsive therapy on male rats depressed by reserpine in behavioral tests and neural counting in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex areas was investigated.
Methods: In this experimental study, 40 male rats were used and they were divided into four groups of ten: 1-control group, 2- ECT group, 3- Depressed group induced by reserpine (0.2 mg/kg i.p.), 4- Depressed + ECT group. Open field, sucrose preference, forced swimming and elevated plus maze tests were used to evaluate anxiety and depression-related behavioral function. At the end of the tests, histochemical studies were performed with neuronal counting in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Results: The results of anxiety and depression behavioral tests showed a significant difference between depressed group and depressed+ECT group (p<0.05). Similarly, studies of the tissue degeneration from hippocampal and prefrontal incisions, showed that ECT could significantly decrease cell death in the depressed+ECT group compared to the depressed group (p<0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results, ECT can reduce the anxiety and depression behaviors induced by reserpine injections in depressed animals and can cause neurogenesis in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.