Seyyed Reza Mokhtari Sangdehi - Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
Akbar Hajizade Moghaddam - Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
Mojtaba Ranjbar - Faculty of Biotechnology, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran

Ischemic brain disease is one of the most frequent causes of mortality and disability. Patients who survive global brain ischemia or hypoxia commonly develop cognitive deficit and depression. Chitosan is a family of linear polysaccharides that is used as carrier nanoparticles to transfer drugs to target organs. Silymarin (SM) is one of the polyphenolic antioxidants and extracted from the seeds of Silybum marianum.Despite all medicinal advantage, silymarin has a low bioavailability. Aim of this study was antidepressive effects of silymarin-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (SMCH- NPs) in a rat model of global cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion (I/R). Materials and Methods: The rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (10 rats per group): control; vehicle-treated I/R, 15 mg/kg aspirin-treated I/R; 15 mg/kg SM-treated I/R, 15 mg/kg SM-CH-NPstreated I/R. Cerebral I/R injury rats were induced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) for 10 min followed by reperfusion. Aspirin, SM and SM-CH-NPs were oral administrated to the rats 14 days before I/R induction. 24 hours after I/R induction,all rats were subjected to a forced swimming test to determine depression. Results: Our study showed a significant increase and decrease in the immobility and climbing times in I/R damage group compared with the control group (p < 0.01). SM and SM-CH-NPs treatmentreversed depression-like behaviors to the normal level. Conclusion: Taken together these data demonstrate that SM and SM-CH-NPs attenuates the depressive like behavioral induced by global cerebral ischemia in rat