Avaliação dos efeitos comportamentais na prole de ratas suplementadas com óleo de chia durante a lactação.

Abstract

The ingestion of omega-3 is important in all life stages, primarily during the gestation and lactation periods, because it exerces a great influence on organs maturation and neurological functions related to the behaviour. Significant amounts of PUFA are found in chia oil, being considered a excellent source of this omega. The present work aims to evaluate the behavioral effects on offsprings of rats supplemented with chia oil during the period of lactation. For this, were used three groups of animals: the control group, that received commercial standard food, the chia group, that received a supplementation with 5% of chia oil, and the lard group, 5% of lard, during all the lactation period. To evaluate the effect of chia oil and lard on the animals anxiety, were performed the Open Field Test, Elevated Plus Maze and the Light/Dark Transition Test. The results were analysed in the Graph Pad Prism software and were considered significant when p < 0,05. In the Open Field Test, among the evaluated parameters, the chia group versus control group presented higher number of fecal cakes (<0,05), however, the parameters of ambulation, rearing and time of grooming did not presented statistically significant differences. In the Elevated Plus Maze Test, the lard group increased the number of head dips versus control (<0,01) and chia (<0,05). The other parameters as number of entries and time of permanence in the opened and closed arms, along with the permanence in the central area did not presented significant data. The Light/Dark Transition Test did not presented any significant result for the analysed parameters, latency time for the dark compartment, number of transitions between the compartments, permanence in the light and dark compartment, as well as ambulation. Therefore, this work has demonstrated that supplementation of chia oil and lard in the mother rats during the lactation were not able to influence in the parameters related to anxiety.