Liao Jianqiao, Nai Yifan, Feng Li, Chen Yimeng, Li Mei, Xu Huaide
College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
Molecules. 2020 Apr 2;25(7):1630. doi: 10.3390/molecules25071630.
For thousands of years, it has been widely believed that walnut is a kind of nut that has benefits for the human body. Walnut oil, accounting for about 70% of walnut, mainly consists of polyunsaturated fatty acids. To investigate the effect of walnut oil on memory impairment in mice, scopolamine (3 mg/kg body weight/d) was used to establish the animal model during Morris Water Maze (MWM) tests. Walnut oil was administrated orally at 10 mL/kg body weight/d for 8 consecutive weeks. The results showed that walnut oil treatment ameliorated the behavior of the memory-impaired mice in the MWM test. Additionally, walnut oil obviously inhibited acetylcholinesterase activity (1.26 ± 0.12 U/mg prot) ( = 0.013) and increased choline acetyltransferase activity (129.75 ± 6.76 U/mg tissue wet weight) in the brains of scopolamine-treated mice ( = 0.024), suggesting that walnut oil could prevent cholinergic function damage in mice brains. Furthermore, walnut oil remarkably prevented the decrease in total superoxide dismutase activity (93.30 ± 5.50 U/mg prot) ( = 0.006) and glutathione content (110.45 ± 17.70 mg/g prot) ( = 0.047) and the increase of malondialdehyde content (13.79 ± 0.96 nmol/mg prot) ( = 0.001) in the brain of scopolamine-treated mice, indicating that walnut oil could inhibit oxidative stress in the brain of mice. Furthermore, walnut oil prevented histological changes of neurons in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions induced by scopolamine. These findings indicate that walnut oil could prevent memory impairment in mice, which might be a potential way for the prevention of memory dysfunctions.
数千年来，人们普遍认为核桃是一种对人体有益的坚果。核桃油约占核桃的70%，主要由多不饱和脂肪酸组成。为了研究核桃油对小鼠记忆损伤的影响，在莫里斯水迷宫（MWM）试验期间，使用东莨菪碱（3毫克/千克体重/天）建立动物模型。连续8周每天以10毫升/千克体重的剂量口服给予核桃油。结果表明，在MWM试验中，核桃油治疗改善了记忆受损小鼠的行为。此外，核桃油显著抑制了东莨菪碱处理小鼠大脑中的乙酰胆碱酯酶活性（1.26±0.12单位/毫克蛋白）（P = 0.013），并提高了胆碱乙酰转移酶活性（129.75±6.76单位/毫克组织湿重）（P = 0.024），这表明核桃油可以预防小鼠大脑中的胆碱能功能损伤。此外，核桃油显著阻止了东莨菪碱处理小鼠大脑中总超氧化物歧化酶活性（93.30±5.50单位/毫克蛋白）（P = 0.006）和谷胱甘肽含量（110.45±17.70毫克/克蛋白）（P = 0.047）的下降以及丙二醛含量（13.79±0.96纳摩尔/毫克蛋白）（P = 0.001）的增加，表明核桃油可以抑制小鼠大脑中的氧化应激。此外，核桃油预防了东莨菪碱诱导的海马CA1和CA3区域神经元的组织学变化。这些发现表明，核桃油可以预防小鼠的记忆损伤，这可能是预防记忆功能障碍的一种潜在方法。
