Investigation of the protective effects of dietary walnut against the MK-801 induced brain damage

The nervous system disorders affect the life quality of the society as much as the patient. Nervous system disorders economics has developed rapidly over recent decades. Protection from the disorders become more important recently because of the economic burden. Therefore some animal models were developed, and various treatments were tested. The walnut was administered protective aimed in this study is one of the recent protective treatment method because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients, primarly. The MK-801 preferred model in this study is the important neurotoxic chemical. It causes degeneration in the brain. The aim of this study is to observe the protective effect of the dietary walnut against the brain degeneration induced with the MK-801. The present study consist of the 5 groups of 40 male mice. All the mice were distributed to the groups equally. The groups formed with the control group, 9% dietary walnut group, MK-801 group, 6% dietary walnut+MK-801 group and 9% dietary walnut+MK-801 group. While the control and MK-801 groups were fed with the normal mice diet, the 6% and %9 dietary walnut groups were fed with the walnuts added to the daily diet for 1 month. The MK-801, 6% dietary walnut+MK-801 group and 9% dietary walnut+MK-801 group's were injected 1mg/kg walnut and control and 9% groups were injected 10ml/kg physiological saline during 14 days after the feedings. Apoptosis and demyelination were evaluated after the sacrification of the animals at the end of the trials. Apoptotic cells were stained with the Tunnel method and the myelin sheet was stained both with the Kluver-Barrera and myelin basic protein stains. The values of the apoptosis and demyelination were between the control and MK-801 groups, statistically significant. The protective activity of the walnut groups were better than the MK-801 group however, not as good as controls. Besides these findings the walnut adding to the daily diet was gained the animal weights, statistically. In conclusion, the walnut added to the daily diet causes the gain weight whereas relatively protect the brain degeneration. The combination of the lower walnut diet with the other antioxidants or gym training may consider in the following studies.