title: Brain fatty acid profiles and spatial learning in malnourished rats: effects of nutritional intervention.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of malnutrition and nutritional rehabilitation on learning and memory performance and brain fatty acid composition. Pregnant and lactating Wistar rats were either fed ad libitum on a commercial laboratory chow or a multideficient diet from north-eastern Brazil (regional basic diet; RBD). After weaning, RBD offspring either continued on the multideficient diet (malnourished group) or switched to a control diet (rehabilitated group), until day 70. There was no difference in the passive avoidance test among the experimental groups, but malnourished rats showed important deficits in performance of the Morris water maze which were improved in the rehabilitated group. The hippocampus and cerebellum of the malnourished rats showed important changes in fatty acid profile obtained by gas-liquid chromatography, but the rehabilitated group had decreased n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and an increase in the proportion of arachidonic acid. The data suggest that nutritional rehabilitation results in partial restoration of fatty acid profiles and cognitive performance.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Bioquímica Nutricional, Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Amanda Santos
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Luciana da Camara
authors.initials: Lda C
authors.lastname: Pacheco
authors.forename: Priscila da Silva
authors.initials: Pda S
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Jan Nora
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Hokoç
authors.forename: Mônica Santos
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: Maria das Graças Tavares
authors.initials: Md
authors.lastname: do Carmo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000737:chemistry; D004032:Diet; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000737:chemistry; D007774:Lactation; D007858:Learning; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D018782:Maze Learning; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids