CUS is widely used to induce depression in mice [32]. Here, female WT mice were mated with male WT mice. After parturition, the postpartum female mice and virgin female mice were subjected to different stressors for 10 days randomly [33] and the depression-related behaviors were tested after the stresses (Fig. 1a). Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression, which can be assessed by the sucrose preference test (SPT) in mice [34]. We found that CUS dramatically decreased the preference for 1% sucrose when compared with control non-stressed mice in both virgin and postpartum female mice (P = 0.024 and P = 0.001), and there were no significant difference between virgin and postpartum female mice under none stress and CUS conditions (P > 0.999 and P = 0.648) (Fig. 1b, fertility condition: F (1, 29) = 0.737, P = 0.398; stress: F (1, 29) = 26.450, P < 0.001; fertility condition ×stress interaction: F (1, 29) = 0.606, P = 0.443). Meanwhile, the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT) was conducted on these mice and the results indicated that the CUS treated virgin
