Fig. 1

Asperosaponin VI ameliorates CMS-induced depression-like behaviors. A Timeline of the experimental process. B Sucrose preference during 6 weeks in Ctrl mice and mice subjected to CMS, followed by treatment with ASA VI or IMI. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs Ctrl group, ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 vs CMS group. C Sucrose preference of individual mice before treatment (3-week) or after treatment (6-week) with ASA VI or IMI. D Latency and time spent immobile in the TST. E Latency and time spent immobile in the FST. F Latency to feed in the NSFT. G Distance travelled in the OFT. H Body weight of Ctrl or CMS mice before treatment (3-week) or after treatment (6-week) with ASA VI or IMI. Data for individual animals are displayed (mean ± SEM, n = 8–12 per group). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple-comparisons test). ASA VI, asperosaponin VI; CMS, chronic mild stress; Ctrl, the control; IMI, imipramine; TST, tail suspension test; FST, forced swimming test; NSFT, novelty-suppressed feeding test; OFT, open field test