The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible relationship between the levels of various brain fatty acids and learning indices in aged (22-23 months old) and young (2-3 months old) female C57BL/6 mice classified as “good” or “poor” learners basing on their performance in a spatial learning task: the Morris water-maze. The levels of several fatty acids including palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidonic (AA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were measured by gas chromatography in brain tissue samples from four different brain areas: hippocampus, cortex, striatum and hypothalamus. The results of behavioural tests confirmed a decline in learning skills with age. However, a great individual variation was revealed in learning scores between aged subjects indicating that biological aging is not always parallel to chronological aging. The relative levels of palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidonic, and DHA acids in the four examined brain structures were very similar. Interestingly, except hypothalamus, no significant relation has been found between the brain levels of DHA omega-3 acid and the animal’s age or cognitive status. This finding contributes to the current debate on the value of DHA supplementation as an effective protective treatment against aging and dementia. The only significant correlation between learning performance and the brain fatty acid levels was found for arachidonic acid in the young mice hippocampus, structure known to be critical for spatial learning and memory. AA level was significantly lower in young “good learners” as compared to both young “poor learners” and old “good learners” with young “good learners” showing significantly better performance than the two other groups. These results are discussed in the context of recent reports about elevated AA levels in Alzheimer’s dementia.
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