Synaptic plasticity preserved with arachidonic acid diet in aged rats.
We examined whether synaptic plasticity was preserved in aged rats administered an arachidonic acid (AA) containing diet. Young male Fischer-344 rats (2 mo of age), and two groups of aged rats of the same strain (2 y of age) who consumed either a control diet or an AA ethyl ester-containing diet for at least 3 mo were used. In the Morris water maze task, aged rats on the AA diet had tendency to show better performance than aged rats on the control diet. Long-term potentiation induced by tetanic stimulation was recorded from a 300 microm thick hippocampal slice with a 36 multi-electrode-array positioned at the dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons. The degree of potentiation after 1 h in aged rats on the AA diet was comparable as that of young controls. Phospholipid analysis revealed that AA and docosahexaenoic acid were the major fatty acids in the hippocampus in aged rats. There was a correlation between the behavioral measure and the changes in excitatory postsynaptic potential slope and between the physiologic measure and the total amount of AA in hippocampus.
Kotani
Susumu
S
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Isehara 259-1193, Japan.
Nakazawa
Hiroe
H
Tokimasa
Takayuki
T
Akimoto
Kengo
K
Kawashima
Hiroshi
H
Toyoda-Ono
Yoshiko
Y
Kiso
Yoshinobu
Y
Okaichi
Hiroshige
H
Sakakibara
Manabu
M
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D016718:Arachidonic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004032:Diet / Q000379:methods; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D011930:Reaction Time; D012044:Regression Analysis; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects*
D008055:Lipids; D016718:Arachidonic Acid