title: Improvement of spatial cognition with dietary docosahexaenoic acid is associated with an increase in Fos expression in rat CA1 hippocampus.
abstract: Twenty 5-week-old male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: one group was fed a fish oil-deficient diet and the other group was fed the same diet supplemented with per orally administered docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for 12 weeks. Six weeks after the start of the administration of DHA, rats were trained for 6 weeks to acquire a reward at the end of each of four arms of an eight-arm radial maze. On completion of the radial maze task, the Fos expression in the hippocampus was examined immunohistochemically. Chronic DHA administration significantly reduced the number of reference and working memory errors. The number of Fos-positive neurons in the CA1 hippocampus significantly increased in DHA-treated rats compared with control rats, demonstrating a statistically significant negative correlation with the number of reference memory errors. These results suggest that the DHA-induced improvement in spatial cognition is associated with increased Fos expression in the CA1 hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Physiology, Shimane University, Faculty of Medicine, Izumo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Kozo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugioka
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maruyama
authors.forename: Yoshimi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Rika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: Toshiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Shahdat Md
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hossain
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shido
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects; D016762:Genes, fos / Q000187:drug effects*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013028:Space Perception / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids