Objective To explore the potential mechanism of Yinao Xieyu Compound（ 颐脑解郁复方

YJC） in treating post-stroke depression. Methods A total of 216 Sprague Dawley rats were randomized into blank group

sham operation group

stroke group

post-stroke depression group

Western medicine（ WM） group and Chinese medicine（ CM） group

with 36 rats in each group（ 12 rats respectively in the 2 nd

4 th and 8 th week）. The blank group was not intervened

the sham operation group was not given middle cerebral artery occlusion（ MCAO）

the stroke group was given MCAO alone

while chronic restraint stress combined single-cage feeding was used to build poststroke depression rat model one week after stroke in the post-stroke depression group

WM group and CM group. From the beginning of the modeling

WM group was given 2. 33 mg/（ kg·d） of fluoxetine hydrochloride capsule orally

CM group was given 9. 92 g/（ kg·d） of YJC orally

while other groups were given 3 ml of distilled water by gavage. All interventions were given once a day. At the 2 nd

4 th and 8 th weeks after stroke

real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the expressions of Notch1 and Hes1 genes in the left hippocampus

and immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expressions of nuclear antigen（ Neu N） and glial fibrillary acidic protein（ GFAP）. Results At the 2 nd

4 th and 8 th weeks

Neu N protein in the post-stroke depression group was lower

while GFAP protein higher than those in the blank group（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）; at the 2 nd and 4 th weeks

Neu N protein in CM group and WM group were higher

while GFAP lower at the 2 nd

4 th and 8 th weeks than that in post-stroke depression group（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）. At the 2 nd week

there was no significant difference in the expression of Notch1 and Hes1 genes in hippocampal dentate gyrus among each group（ P > 0. 05）. At the 4 th week

the expressions of Notch1 and Hes1 genes in hippocampal dentate gyrus of rats in CM group was higher than those in post-stroke depression group（ P < 0. 01）.There were no significant differences in the expressions of Notch1 and Hes1 between CM group and post-stroke depression group at the 8 th week（ P > 0. 05）. Conclusion YJC may treat post-stroke depression by up-regulating the Notch1 and Hes1 gene expressions in the Notch signaling pathway

increasing the number of neurons in the dentate gyrus and decreasing the number of astrocytes in the hippocampus.