Subash Selvaraju, Essa Musthafa Mohamed, Braidy Nady, Al-Jabri Ahood, Vaishnav Ragini, Al-Adawi Samir, Al-Asmi Abdullah, Guillemin Gilles J
a Department of Food Science and Nutrition , College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University , Muscat , Oman.
b Ageing and Dementia Research Group, Sultan Qaboos University , Muscat , Oman.
Nutr Neurosci. 2016 Dec;19(10):475-483. doi: 10.1179/1476830514Y.0000000131. Epub 2016 Mar 2.
Alzheimer disease (AD) is one of the most common forms of dementia in the elderly. Several reports have suggested neurotoxic effects of amyloid beta protein (Aβ) and role of oxidative stress in AD. Figs are rich in fiber, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, vitamin K, and are a good source of proanthocyanidins and quercetin which demonstrate potent antioxidant properties. We studied the effect of dietary supplementation with 4% figs grown in Oman on the memory, anxiety, and learning skills in APPsw/Tg2576 (Tg mice) mice model for AD. We assessed spatial memory and learning ability, psychomotor coordination, and anxiety-related behavior in Tg and wild-type mice at the age of 4 months and after 15 months using the Morris water maze test, rota-rod test, elevated plus maze test, and open-field test. Tg mice that were fed a control diet without figs showed significant memory deficits, increased anxiety-related behavior, and severe impairment in spatial, position discrimination learning ability, and motor coordination compared to the wild-type control mice on the same diet, and Tg mice fed on 4% fig diet supplementation for 15 months. Our results suggest that dietary supplementation of figs may be useful for the improvement of cognitive and behavioral deficits in AD.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是老年人中最常见的痴呆形式之一。多项报告表明β-淀粉样蛋白（Aβ）具有神经毒性作用，且氧化应激在AD中发挥作用。无花果富含纤维、铜、铁、锰、镁、钾、钙、维生素K，还是原花青素和槲皮素的良好来源，这些成分具有强大的抗氧化特性。我们研究了在阿曼种植的4%无花果饮食补充剂对APPsw/Tg2576（Tg小鼠）AD小鼠模型的记忆、焦虑和学习技能的影响。我们使用莫里斯水迷宫试验、转棒试验、高架十字迷宫试验和旷场试验，在4个月龄和15个月龄时评估了Tg小鼠和野生型小鼠的空间记忆和学习能力、精神运动协调性以及焦虑相关行为。与喂食相同饮食的野生型对照小鼠以及喂食4%无花果饮食补充剂15个月的Tg小鼠相比，喂食不含无花果的对照饮食的Tg小鼠表现出明显的记忆缺陷、焦虑相关行为增加，以及在空间、位置辨别学习能力和运动协调性方面的严重受损。我们的结果表明，饮食中补充无花果可能有助于改善AD患者的认知和行为缺陷。
