Document Type : Article

Abstract

Abstract
Glucocorticoids are observed to increase at anxiety and different stressful situations. This augmentation is driven by stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which can threaten physical and mental health in long-term. Thus, this study compared the effects of diazepam and currant hydroalcoholic extract on serum corticosterone level in adult male rat. In this study, 48 adult male mice were used in 6 groups of 8 animals, including the control (no treatment), Sham (receiving water) and 4 experimental groups receiving doses of 100, 200, 400 mg/kg from currant hydroalcoholic extract and 1 mg/kg of diazepam by gavage. After15days, rats perceived stressinelevatedplusmaze, after which corticosteronelevel wasmeasured in the serum of the blood collected from theirheart. Resultswere statically analyzedusingANOVAandTukey'stest. The results of this study showed that the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg from currant extract significantly increases (P≤0.05) and diazepam significantly decreases (P≤0.01) the corticosterone levels I serum.Diazepamreducedcorticosteronelevelsin serum by affectingthe benzodiazepinereceptors and facilitatinginhibitory effect of GABA while currantextract increased it probablyby stimulatingnoradrenergicpathways.