Dietary-induced changes in lipid and fatty acid composition can modify chronaxie values in the rat sciatic nerve.

The present investigation aimed at clarifying the possible correlations among dietary lipids, peripheral fatty acid composition of nerve lipids and an index of the nervous tissue excitability, the chronaxie. The experiments were performed on female albino rats fed diets containing olive oil (OO) and fish oil (FO) along two generations. Total lipids fatty acid composition of the sciatic nerves from the two groups differed in the proportions of 18:1(n-9), 20:1(n-9), 22-1, 20:5(n-3) and 22:6(n-3). Also the lipid class composition showed significant differences among FO and OO specimens (free cholesterol more concentrated in the OO lipids; triacylglycerols more concentrated in the FO ones). The sciatic nerve isolated from FO rats showed a significant decrease in the chronaxie values if compared to the OO specimens. These results could follow from dietary-induced changes in the perineural permeability and/or possible modifications in the cable properties of the peripheral nerve fibers related to the myelin sheath composition.