This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of n-6(corn oil) & n-3(fish oil) fatty acids on infarction size and the cerebral activities of antioxidant enzyme in rat focal brain ischemia model. Weaning Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with
either
corn oil supplemented diet(COD, 14% corn oil) or fish oil supplemented diet(FOD, 14% menhaden oil) for 6 weeks. The right middle cerebral artery was occluded for 2 hours with a silicon rubber coated nylon surgical thread. After 24 hours of
recirculation, the rats were sacrificed and brain sections were photographed using CCD camera after staining with 2, 3, 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride for 60 minutes in room temperature. The infarcted area was measured and the volume of
inafrction
was
calculated. Catalase(CAT), superoxide dismutase(SOD) activities, and fatty acid composition in the brain were also measured. The total and corrected infarction volumes were not significantly different between FOD and COD group. The
docosagexaenoic
acid(DHA) and DHA content/arachidonic acid(AA) ratio of the cerebral cortex, an index of defense against lipid oxidation, were significantly increased in FOD group compared to those of COD group(p<0.05). In the left cortes(non-infarction side) as
well
as the right corted(infarction side) of FOD group, CAT and Cu/Zn SOD activities were higher than those of the COD group(p<0.05). However, CAT and Cu/Zn SOD activities were not significantly different between the left cortex(non-infarction side)
and
the
right cortex(infarction side) of both FOD and COD group. GPx activities were also not significantly different between two groups. Our results demonstrate that the brain infarction size in FOD and COD were not significantly different. However,
cerebral
lipid composition and antioxidant enzyme activities in FOD and COD group were different. Fish oil, a source of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid(PUFA) and corn oil, that of n-6(PUFA) may have a protective effect against oxidative stress induced via
different mechanisms.
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