The aim of the present study was to elucidate the possible relationship between
the levels of various brain fatty acids and learning indices in aged and young mice
classified as &ldquo / good&rdquo / or &ldquo / poor&rdquo / learners basing on their performance in a spatial
learning task, the Morris Water Maze. The levels of several fatty acids including
palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid
(DHA) were measured using gas chromatography separately in samples from four
different brain areas: hippocampus, cortex, striatum and hypothalamus. The level
of oleic acid in the cerebral cortex was significantly higher in young-good learners
as compared to young-poor learners and higher in young-poor learners than in
old-poor learners, with no significant difference in the concentration of this acid
between old-good and old-poor learners.
The most consistent correlation between animals&rsquo / learning capacity and brain fatty
acid&rsquo / level was found for the arachidonic acid in the hippocampal region: AA level
was significantly lower in young-good learners as compared to both young-poor
learners&rdquo / and old-good learners&rdquo / with young-good learners showing significantly
better performance than the two other groups. Interestingly, except hypothalamus,
no significant between-group differences were recorded for the remaining fatty
acids including DHA, in none of the four brain regions examined.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613090/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Creators | Yetimler, Berrak |
| Contributors | Jakubowska Dogru, Ewa |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for METU campus |
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