The Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acid and Exercise on Olfaction and Memory on Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice

Bacharach, Dana

The Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acid and Exercise on Olfaction and Memory on Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10456/42737

Author(s)

Bacharach, Dana

Date Issued

April 3, 2017

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is categorized as type of dementia that is recognized post-mortem by neurofibrillary tangles and beta-amyloid plaque build-up in areas of the brain associated with memory. The main symptoms include: confusion, mood swings, and short-term memory deficits; the incidence rate of AD is predicted to more than double by 2050. Prior research has found that either omega-3 fatty acid and or regular exercise slow the progression of AD. I hypothesized that the combination of omega-3 supplementation and exercise would prevent olfactory and memory decline associated with AD more than one of the treatments alone. My study included twenty-four Alzheimer’s model mice broken down into four groups. The Control group was given no treatment and the three experimental groups were given: exercise only, supplemented omega-3 fatty acid rich diet only, and both exercise and omega-3 supplementation. Groups that received exercise treatment ran on a treadmill three days a week at 13 meters/minute for twenty minutes. The groups that received omega-3 fatty acid were given food composed of 2.83% omega-3 fatty acid, as compared to 0.30% in the normal food that is in normal mouse chow. The progression of Alzheimer’s was measured before and after treatment through a y- maze test, which measured spatial working memory and a hidden cookie test, which measured olfaction. A paired t-test did find a significant increase in time it took the mice in the Control group to find the hidden cookie after the treatment and a significant decrease in the time in both the exercise and omega-3 only mice spent in the novel arm of the y-maze after treatment. This study found no significant difference between treatments, but a general trend showed the experimental groups performed better than the Control group. It appears that any of the experimental treatments are equally beneficial for AD patients compared to no treatment.

Major

Biology

First Reader(s)

Coates, E. Lee