| Abstract No.: | B-C2121 |
| Country: | Canada |
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| Title: | THE EFFECTS OF A HIGH-FAT WESTERN DIET ON STROKE SEVERITY AND FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | 1 Anastasia Arvanitidis*; 1 Frederick Colbourne;
1 University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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| Content: | Objectives: Nutrition may influence stroke severity and functional outcome. In this study we assessed whether a high-fat (HF) western diet affected recovery following global ischemia. The present study had 3 parts. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of a HF western diet on temperature, activity, and cognition. Experiment 2 examined the effects of a 60-day HF diet regimen on histological and behavioural outcome following global ischemia. We were concerned that the duration of feeding in Experiment 2 was too short to have an appreciable effect on histology and/or functional outcome. Thus, Experiment 3 investigated the effects of a 120-day HF diet regimen on histological and behavioural outcome following global ischemia.
Materials and Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats, obtained at ~50g, were randomly assigned to either the HF or low-fat (LF) control diet group.
Experiment 1:
Rats were fed for 30 days and then they had telemetry probes implanted into the peritoneal cavity. Rats were then placed on their respective pre-surgical diets for an additional 30 days. Two and 4 weeks following core probe implantation, learning and memory was assessed in the standard version of the Morris Water Maze (MWM) task. At 60 days, rats were sacrificed and viable hippocampal CA1 cells were quantified using the haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain.
Experiment 2:
Rats were fed for 30 days and then subjected to an 8-minute global ischemia using the 2-Vessel Occlusion (2-VO) model. Subsequently, we employed the same protocol in this experiment as we did in part 1.
Experiment 3:
Rats were fed for 90 days and then subjected to an 8-minute global ischemia using the 2-VO model. Rats were then placed onto their respective pre-surgical diets for an additional 30 days. At 20 days following surgery, learning and memory was assessed for a total of 10 days using the moving platform version of the MWM task. At 120 days, rats were euthanized and viable hippocampal CA1 cells were quantified.
Results: Experiment 1:
There were no differences in temperature profiles, learning and memory, and the number of viable CA1 cells between the HF and LF groups. However, rats fed a LF diet were consistently and significantly more active than rats fed a HF diet.
Experiment 2:
Eight minutes of ischemia induced severe CA1 cell loss (~90%) in the medial, middle, and lateral CA1 sectors, as well as severe memory impairments in the MWM task. However, the diet main-effect was not significant on behaviour or histology.
Experiment 3:
Eight minutes of ischemia induced severe CA1 cell loss (~90%) in the medial, middle, and lateral CA1 sectors, as well as severe memory impairments in the MWM task. Furthermore, animals fed a HF diet were significantly more impaired on the MWM task than animals fed a LF diet. Histology is in the process of being completed.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that a HF diet influences recovery following stroke. Future studies will investigate how diet may be influencing recovery mechanisms or cell |
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