Efeitos comportamentais do consumo de óleo de cártamo na prole de ratas durante a gestação e lactação.

Abstract

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in vegetable fats and oils promote changes in brain function by influencing the biophysical properties of neuronal membranes. Evidence shows their involvement in the regulation of emotions, exploratory activity and cognitive function in animals and humans. Safflower oil (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has significant amounts of PUFAs, mainly linoleic acid (ALL) which is related to the development of the brain and retina during prenatal and postnatal, but it is still unclear whether supplementation with safflower oil during pregnancy and lactation can influence behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral changes in Wistar rats from rats treated during gestation and lactation diets containing safflower oil as a lipid source. Primiparous females, Wistar, aged 120 and 150 days, weighing 250 ± 50 g were used for collecting the male rats. Formed two groups: the control group that received standard diet (AIN- 93G) and the experimental one that received the standard diet (AIN-93G) modified, with the fat source safflower oil. After weaning, the litters were divided into two groups, the safflower group (CT), coming from the rats given the experimental diet and the control group (C) of rats with standard diet. To evaluate the effect of safflower on anxiety animal oil, two tests were performed: Test the Open Field, among the parameters analyzed the amount of rise was higher in CT (P <0.01), and no difference between groups for the parameters of ambulation, gooming and defecation, and the Plus-Maze Test High, in which the CT group spent more time in the open arms, doing more dives head and entered the open arms more often (P <0 05) and closed (P <0.01), suggesting that CT group had a greater exploratory activity than group C. to evaluate the effect of safflower oil on the memory of animals, two tests were performed: Test habituation of the Open Field, and the total ambulation did not differ between groups, and the Test of Recognition of Objects, where the CT group performed better in the activity, more time interacting with the new object than group C (P <0.05). Therefore, this study demonstrated that consumption of safflower 10 oil during pregnancy and lactation leads to positive effects on development and maintenance of psychomotor and cognitive functions of the offspring, and thus are essential for the structural development of the CNS, able to influence at certain stages mental development.