Medium chain triglyceride diet reduces anxiety-like behaviors and enhances social competitiveness in rats.

Medium chain triglyceride diet reduces anxiety-like behaviors and enhances social competitiveness in rats. Neuropharmacology. 2018 Jun 13;: Authors: Hollis F, Mitchell ES, Canto C, Wang D, Sandi C Abstract Medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) are emerging as unique dietary supplements potentially relevant to improve brain dysfunctions. MCT are converted into ketones and free medium chain fatty acids that, in the brain, are highly effective energy sources to mitochondria and potentially less harmful than glucose metabolism to neurons. Given the recently established link between mitochondrial dysfunction and high anxiety and depression, we set this study to investigate the effectiveness of an MCT-enriched diet to ameliorate anxiety- and depression-related behaviors in rats. Male rats were distributed into two groups, matched for their anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze. Each group was given either MCT-supplemented diet or an isocaloric control diet for fifteen days. Starting from the eighth day of diet, rats were exposed to different behavioral tests. MCT-fed rats showed reduced anxiety-like behaviors and enhanced social competitiveness, while their coping responses in the forced swim test or sociability were not affected by the treatment. When evaluated at the end of the two-week MCT diet, mitochondrial respiration was reduced in the mPFC while unchanged in the nucleus accumbens. In the mPFC, enzymes related to glycolysis an...
Source: Neuropharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Neuropharmacology Source Type: research