Differential Effects of Dietary Oils on Emotional and Cognitive Behaviors

Several dietary oils have been used preventatively and therapeutically in the setting of neurological disease. However, the mechanisms underlying their influence on brain function and metabolism remain unknown. It was investigated whether 3 types of dietary oils affected emotional behaviors in mice. Wild-type (WT) mice and sialyltransferase ST3Gal IV-knockout (KO) mice, which exhibit increased emotional and cognitive behaviors, were fed diets containing 20% dietary oils from post-weaning to adulthood. Mice were fed pellets made from control feed AIN93G powder containing 18% fish oil, soybean oil, or a mixture of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-3-palmitoyl glycerol (POP) and 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-3-stearoyl glycerol (SOS), plus 2% soybean oil. Once mice reached adulthood, they were subjected to fear conditioning test to measure cognitive anxiety and forced swim test to measure depression. WT mice fed the POP-SOS diet showed a 0.6-fold decrease in percent freezing with contextual fear compared with WT mice fed the control diet. KO mice fed the fish oil diet showed a 1.4-fold increase in percent freezing with contextual fear compared with KO mice fed the control diet. These findings indicate that response to contextual fear was improved in WT mice that consumed POP-SOS but aggravated in KO mice that consumed fish oils. Furthermore, KO mice showed a 0.4-fold decrease in percent freezing in response to tone fear when they were fed POP-SOS diet compared to a control diet. Thus, POP-SOS diet reduced tone fear level of KO mice until the same level of WT mice. Finally, KO mice fed the soybean oil diet showed a 1.7-fold increase in immobility in the forced swim test compared to KO mice fed the control diet. Taken together, oil-rich diets differentially modulate anxiety and depression in normal and anxious mice. Oils rich in saturated fatty acids may alleviate anxiety more strongly than other oils.