title: Eicosapentaenoic acid pre-treatment reduces biochemical changes induced in total brain and myelin of weanling Wistar rats by cuprizone feeding.
abstract: Recently, we investigated the effects of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a fatty acid which modulates immune response and stimulates myelin gene expression, in an established model of multiple sclerosis (MS): the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) induced in Dark Agouti rats. As scientific evidences and our previous studies have suggested that EPA could directly affect oligodendrocytes, we have now evaluated the effects of EPA in the non-immune mediate MS model characterized by selective oligodendrocytes damage induced by cuprizone (CPZ). We found that feeding weanling rats diets containing 0.6% CPZ for 2 weeks induced variation of whole brain and myelin biochemical composition representative of a severe myelin damage. We thus administered daily and by gavage EPA or PBS to 2-day old rats up to 21 days. Afterwards, rats were fed CPZ diet for 9 days. The results show that compared to PBS/CPZ fed rats, the whole brain cerebroside content in EPA pre-treated rats was statistically increased as well as there was an overall trend of increase of all other biochemical components.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Veterinary Health & Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: dibiase@iss.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Biase
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Veterinary Health & Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salvati
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Veterinary Health & Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Benedetto
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Veterinary Health & Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Attorri
authors.affiliation: Experimental Animal Welfare Sector, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Malchiodi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002554:Cerebrosides / Q000378:metabolism; D003471:Cuprizone; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000097:blood; D018836:Inflammation Mediators / Q000378:metabolism; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000378:metabolism*; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014886:Weaning
chemical_list: D002554:Cerebrosides; D005227:Fatty Acids; D018836:Inflammation Mediators; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D003471:Cuprizone; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid
keywords: Cuprizone; Eicosapentaenoic acid; Myelin; Rat