title: Ketogenic diet prevents cardiac arrest-induced cerebral ischemic neurodegeneration.
abstract: Ketogenic diet (KD) is an effective treatment for intractable epilepsies. We recently found that KD can prevent seizure and myoclonic jerk in a rat model of post-hypoxic myoclonus. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that KD can prevent the cerebral ischemic neurodegeneration in this animal model. Rats fed a standard diet or KD for 25 days were being subjected to mechanically induced cardiac arrest brain ischemia for 8 min 30 s. Nine days after cardiac arrest, frozen rat brains were sectioned for evaluation of ischemia-induced neurodegeneration using fluoro-jade (FJ) staining. The FJ positive degenerating neurons were counted manually. Cardiac arrest-induced cerebral ischemia in rats fed the standard diet exhibited extensive neurodegeneration in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, the number of FJ positive neurons was 822+/-80 (n=4). They also showed signs of neurodegeneration in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum and in the thalamic reticular nucleus, the number of FJ positive neurons in the cerebellum was 55+/-27 (n=4), the number of FJ positive neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus was 22+/-5 (n=4). In contrast, rats fed KD showed no evidence of neurodegeneration, the number of FJ positive neurons in these areas were zero. The results demonstrate that KD can prevent cardiac arrest-induced cerebral ischemic neurodegeneration in selected brain regions.
authors.affiliation: The Parkinson's and Movement Disorder Research Laboratory, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, 2625 Pasadena Ave., Long Beach, CA, USA. kktai@yahoo.com
authors.forename: K-K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Truong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005452:Fluoresceins; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D005452:Fluoresceins; D009930:Organic Chemicals; C435731:fluoro jade