| dc.description.abstract | Background: Obesity has been shown to degrade cognitive
functions, including memory. Recent evidence suggests that
obesity also results in inflammation in the brain. In this study we investigated the effect of etanercept (a TNF-α inhibitor) on emotional
memory in cafeteria diet (CD)-fed rats.Methods: Six-week-old male Wistar Albino rats (300-350 g) were
divided into three groups (n=10): Control (not exposed to CD),
CD-fed (exposed to CD during 5 weeks) and CD-fed+etanercept
(exposed to CD and treated with etanercept (0.8 mg/kg/weekly/
subcutaneously during 5 weeks). CD was used to generate diet-induced obesity. The body weights of animals were measured
weekly. To determine the effects of CD and etanercept treatment
on emotional memory, passive avoidance test (PAT) was used. Total
locomotor activity (TLA) was also measured. One-way ANOVA and
Tukey’s post hoc test used for statistical analysis.
Results: After 5 weeks, the body weight of CD-fed group was
higher than control (p<0.001) and CD-fed+etanercept group
was lower than CD-fed group (p<0.05). There was no difference
between all groups in terms of TLA (F(2,27)=0.6212, p=0.5448).
In the PAT, there was no difference between the first day latency
of animals (F(2,27)=0.4524, p=0.6408). The retention latency significantly decreased in CD-fed group compared to control group
(p<0.05), while there was no difference between CD-fed+etanercept group and control group (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Treatment with etanercept reverses the deleterious
effects of obesity on emotional memory. Thus, a role for inflammation in mediating memory dysfunction presents an important
avenue for the development of therapies to treat memory deficits
in obesity. | en_US |
