Avaliação do efeito ômega-3 sobre parâmetros comportamentais e bioquímicos em ratos submetidos a um modelo animal de depressão

• Autor(a) principal: Mello, Aline Haas de
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Universitário da Ânima (RUNA)
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.animaeducacao.com.br/handle/ANIMA/3134
• topic: Depressão maior; Estresse crônico Moderado; Tratamento; Ácidos Graxos Poli-insaturados; Ômega-3

lth Organization estimates that major depression affects about 350 million people worldwide and reports this disorder as the main contributor to the global burden of disease. Despite the well-defined symptoms, major depression is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder whose pathophysiology is not clearly established. Even though there are numerous treatments available, most depressed patients do not reach complete remission of symptoms. For this reason, many researchers are still studying novel targets for antidepressant therapies, and among them, several studies have shown beneficial effects of omega-3 in the treatment of major depression. However, the mechanisms which omega-3 could demonstrate antidepressant effects are not yet fully elucidated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of omega-3 on behavioral and biochemical parameters in rats submitted to chronic moderate stress (CMS), an animal model of depression. Biochemical analyzes were based on the hypothesis of the involvement of loss of energy metabolism and oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of major depression. Our results showed that animals submitted to CMS presented anhedonia, did not have significant weight gain, and showed inhibition of the activity of complexes I and IV of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, increased lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation. Administration of omega-3 did not reverse the anhedonia, restored body weight, reversed the inhibition of complex I activity in the posterior cortex, complex IV in the cerebellum and posterior cortex, as well as reversed the oxidative damage to lipids and proteins caused by CMS. Thus, we suggest that omega-3 can have antioxidant effect. Therefore, our results corroborate with studies that show major depression is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress, and show that omega-3 supplementation can reverse some of these changes, supporting studies that indicate omega-3 has great potential to assist in treatment of major depression.