Fig. 1

PB alleviated sucrose preference and body weight in CUMS mice (A) Experimental schedule. A total of 40 C57BL/6 J mice randomly divided into 5 groups: (a) Control; (b) Control+PB; (c) CUMS; (d) CUMS+PB; (e) CUMS+IMI. Meanwhile, the IMI treatment was served as a positive control, and IMI was administrated every day during the UCSM experiments by oral gavage. The unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) protocols and PB treatment lasted 6 weeks and 3 weeks, respectively. Before the UCMS procedure, the sucrose preference and body weight were measured and lasted for once a week. Sucrose preference was measured in UCMS weekly. The depressive-like behavioral assessment was assessed at the end of the experiments. The sucrose preference (B) and body weight (C) were detected once a week. Eight mice per group. **p < 0.01 vs. Control. #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01 vs. CUMS