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Protective effects of omega-3 fish oil on lead-induced impairment of long-term potentiation in rat dentate gyrus in vivo

CAO Xiu-Jing, CAO Jie-Jie, CHEN Ting-Ting, CHEN Wei-Heng, RUAN Di-Yun

School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China； School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of omega-3 fish oil supplement by gavage (0.4 mL/100 g body weight) on the chronic leadinduced(0.2% lead acetate) impairments of long-term potentiation (LTP) in rat dentate gyrus (DG) in vivo, we designed the experimentswhich were carried out in four groups of newborn Wistar rats (the control, the lead-exposed, the control with fish oil treatmentand the lead-exposed with fish oil treatment, respectively). The excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) and population spike (PS)amplitude were measured in the DG of rats with above different treatments at the age of 80-90 d in response to stimulation applied tothe lateral perforant path. The results showed (1) postnatal chronic lead-exposure impaired LTP measured on both EPSP slope and PSamplitude in DG area of the hippocampus; (2) in the control rats, omega-3 fish oil had no effect on LTP while in the lead-exposed rats,omega-3 fish oil had a protective effect on LTP. These results suggest that omega-3 fish oil supplement could protect rats from the leadinducedimpairment of LTP. Omega-3 fish oil might be a preventive substance in reducing LTP deficits induced by lead.

Key words: lead; fish oil; long-term potentiation; hippocampus

Received: 2010-03-09　　Accepted: 2010-05-20

Corresponding author: 曹秀菁　　E-mail: xiujingcao@yeah.net

Citing This Article：

CAO Xiu-Jing, CAO Jie-Jie, CHEN Ting-Ting, CHEN Wei-Heng, RUAN Di-Yun. Protective effects of omega-3 fish oil on lead-induced impairment of long-term potentiation in rat dentate gyrus in vivo. Acta Physiol Sin 2010; 62 (3): 225-230 (in Chinese with English abstract).