Behavioral tests

The elevated plus maze (EPM), open-field Test (OFT), and marble buried test (MBT) were used to examine anxiety-like behaviors in mice. For the EPM (Fan et al., 2022), mice were released from the central platform individually and allowed to explore the maze freely for 5 min with a camera positioned overhead. The time spent, the distance traveled, and the number of entries in the open arms were recorded. For the OFT (Fan et al., 2022), mice were placed in the center of a square chamber (50 × 50 cm) to explore the whole chamber for 5 min. The time spent and the number of entries into the center zone (25 × 25 cm) were recorded. For the MBT (Nie et al., 2020), mice were placed individually in a clean cage with 5 cm of corncob bedding. Sixteen black marbles (14 mm diameter) were prearranged on top of the bedding in four evenly spaced rows of four marbles each. Mice were left undisturbed for 30 min, and the number of not buried marbles (more than half the surface of the marble uncovered with bedding) was counted every 5 min.

The tail suspension test (TST) and forced swim test (FST) were used to test depression-like behaviors in mice. Mice were individually suspended by the tail (TST) or placed into the water (FST) for 6 min. The immobility of each mouse during the last 4 min was recorded (Fan et al., 2022). All behavioral data were analyzed by TopScan software (Clever Systems Inc).