Table 1.
Relevant studies concerning the effects of n3-PUFAs in animal research.
| Reference No. | Animal | Intervention | Experimental Behavioral Task | Duration | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [89] | Rat | Walnut | Memory function; by elevated plus maze (EPM) and radial arm maze (RAM) |
28 days | A significant improvement in learning and memory of walnut treated rats was observed |
| [157] | Rat | Fish oil | Spatial Learning; by water maze | 4 months | No effect on age-related deficits in memory |
| [91] | Male wistar rat | Cod liver oil | -Recall; passive avoidance situation -spatial reference and working memory; Barnes maze -locomotor activity, anxiety behavior; open field and elevated plus-maze |
21 days | Cod liver oil prevented the effects of chronic restraint stress on recall and the spatial memory |
| [158] | Male grey mouse lemur | Fish oil | -anxiety, reference spatial memory, locomotor activity monitoring, sensory-motor test; open field test | 5 months | ω3-supplemented animals exhibited lower anxiety level what was accompanied by better performances in a reference spatial memory task |
| [159] | BALBcByJ mouse | DHA, retinoid X receptor (RXR) agonist / antagonist | Promnemonic and antidespair activities; spontaneous alternation and forced swim test | DHA decreased despair behavior and improved working memory. The effects could be mimicked by RXR agonist, blocked by antagonist and inhibited by RXR knockout. | |
| [160] | Rat, infusion of Amyloid beta peptide (1-40) | EPA | cognition learning ability; eight-arm radial maze | 12 weeks | EPA significantly reduced the increase in the number of reference and working memory errors in the Abeta-infused rats |
| [161] |
Male Rat | Nonpurified or sunflower oil-based (ω-3) fatty acid-deficient diet alone or supplemented with (ω-3) fatty acids |
reference and working memory performance; Morris water maze | 102-130 days | Rats fed the fatty acid-deficient diet showed significantly poorer reference and working memory, and FO supplementation partially rescued both memory performances |
| [162] | Gerbil | Uridine, Choline, DHA | Working memory; Four-arm radial maze apparatus (radial maze, t-maze, y-maze, rotarod maze) |
4 weeks | DHA plus choline improved performance on the four-arm radial maze, T-maze, and Y-maze tests; coadministering UMP further enhanced these increases |
| [163] | Senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mouse | EPA, DHA | Learning, memory; T-maze training |
8 weeks | Dietary PUFA is associated with delay in cognitive decline |
| [164] |
Mouse | Fatty acid-deficient diet | spontaneous locomotor activity, anxiety related behavior; open field test, the elevated plus maze -locomotor activity, spatial task performance; Barnes circular maze |
7 weeks | The ω-3 fatty acid-deficient mice demonstrated impaired learning in the reference-memory version of the Barnes circular maze |
| [165] | Rat, infusion of Amyloid beta peptide (1-40) | DHA, Fatty acid-deficient diet | learning ability-related reference, working memory; 8-arm radial maze | 12 weeks | DHA significantly reduced the increase in the number of reference and working memory errors in the Abeta-infused rats |
| [166] | Rat | Fatty acid-deficient diet | -Motor activity; video image analyzer - anxiety-related behavior; elevated plus-maze -spatial task performance; Morris water maze | 9 weeks | Deficiency was associated with significantly reduced spatial learning |
| [167] |
Rat, pregnant, Testing of infants at PND77 | Diet of fish oil | Delayed spatial alternation; automated operant chambers | Delayed spatial alternation impairments in rats fed fish oil correlates with altered ω-6/ω-3 FA ratio | |
| [168] | Male wistar rat, administered IL-1beta |
EPA | Spatial memory; Morris water maze | 5 weeks | The effects of IL-1 were attenuated by the administration of E-EPA |
| [169] |
Rat | DHA | Spatial memory; eight-arm radial maze | 12 weeks | DHA administration significantly reduced the number of reference and working memory errors |
| [170] |
Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) |
DHA | spatial short-term memory; delayed-matching-to-place (DMP) version of the Morris water maze | 5 weeks | There was no effect of dietary supplementation on performance |
| [171] |
Male wistar rat | DHA | Spatial memory; eight-arm radial maze | 10 weeks | Administration of DHA significantly decreased the number of reference working memory error |
| [172] |
adult rat | Fatty acid-deficient diet | Learning; Morris water maze | The ω-3 fatty acid-deficient mice demonstrated impaired learning in the Morris water maze | |
| [137] |
Young (five week old) male rat | DHA | reference memory and working memory; partially (four of eight) baited eight-arm radial maze | 10 weeks | DHA administration significantly reduced the number of reference memory errors |
| [173] |
Male long-Evans rat | DHA, AA, LA, ALA, saturated fatty acids | Working memory; water maze | 3 - 6 weeks | The groups did not differ in the Morris water-maze, but on a test of working memory, the saturated fat group was impaired |
| [174] |
Senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mouse | LA, ALA | learning and memory; Sidman active avoidance task, light and dark discrimination learning test | 28 weeks | The group ALA showed greater improvement in learning in the Sidman active avoidance task than did the LA group. |
| [175] |
Rat | LA, ALA | Learning; water maze | Rats fed ALA-rich diet had a longer mean survival time and an increased learning ability in senescence | |
| [98] | Ketamine animal model of SZ; Wistar rats | Fatty acids | Locomotor activity, inhibitory avoidance, social interaction; open field task | 15 days | Prevented from positive, negative and cognitive symptoms |