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Endogenous Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Prevents Aβ1–42 Oligomer-Induced Neuronal Injury

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Abstract

The intake of the polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) or n-3 fatty acid has been associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in epidemiological reports. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. Here, we report that exogenous DHA administration could protect neurons against Aβ oligomer-induced injury both in vitro and in vivo, partly through reducing the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and preventing cell apoptosis. In transgenic fat-1 mice with enriched ω-3 fatty acids, Aβ oligomers induced fewer neuronal losses, when compared to wild-type (WT) mice. We conclude that endogenous DHA are neuroprotective in pathogenesis processes of AD.

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Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (018/2013/A1), matching grant project MRG003/SHX/2014/ICMS, and multi-year research grant, university of Macau, MYRG122 (Y1-L3)-ICMS12-SHX and MYRG110 (Y1-L2)-ICMS13-SHX (H.S.). The study is also supported by “Hundred Talents program,” “Qing Lan Project” of Nanjing Normal University, and Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. BK20140917) (T-F.Y.).

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, China

    Yuan Tan, Huixia Ren, Zhe Shi, Chengwei He, Jian-Bo Wan, Peng Li & Huanxing Su

  2. Department of Neurology, National Key Clinical Department and Key Discipline of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Xiaoli Yao

  3. Laboratory for Lipid Medicine and Technology, The Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Jing-X Kang

  4. School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China

    Ti-Fei Yuan

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  1. Yuan Tan
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  2. Huixia Ren
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  3. Zhe Shi
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  5. Chengwei He
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  9. Ti-Fei Yuan
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Correspondence to Ti-Fei Yuan or Huanxing Su.

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Tan, Y., Ren, H., Shi, Z. et al. Endogenous Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Prevents Aβ1–42 Oligomer-Induced Neuronal Injury. Mol Neurobiol 53, 3146–3153 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-015-9224-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-015-9224-0

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