Abstract:

Objective: To study the effect of pecan oil on the serum estrogen (E2) level and gene expressions of Alzheimer gene -1 (PS-1) and apolipoprotein E (aproE) gene and Aβ content in the hippocampus of ovariectomized rats subjected to E2 intervention. Methods: Ovariectomized female rats were used as animal model and divided into 8 groups for 8 rats in each group: groups given low dose (100 mg/kg) pecan oil alone or plus E2, separately named low-dose pecan oil group and low-dose pecan oil plus E2 group, middle-dose pecan oil group and middle-dose pecan oil plus E2 group and high-dose pecan oil group and high-dose pecan oil plus E2 group obtained similarly, control group (given only saline) and E2 group (given only E2). RT-PCR was used to detect the gene expressions of PS-1 and aproE in rat hippocampus, and radioimmunoassay to detect the level of Aβ in rat hippocampal and serum E2 level. Results: E2 intervention resulted in a significant (P＜0.01) increase in serum E2 level in ovariectomized rats. The highest Aβ level was observed in the control group. Regardless of whether or not E2 intervention was adopted, Aβ level gradually decreased with increasing pecan oil dosage and a significant difference (P＜0.05) was observed within both middle and high dose groups. The presence of E2 resulted in a large decrease in Aβ level in comparison with the control group, which exhibited the highest PS-1 gene expression but the lowest aproE gene expression. For rats both with and without E2 intervention, PS-1 gene expression showed only a slight decrease with increasing pecan oil dosage, while aproE gene expression markedly increased. However, at the same pecan oil dosages, E2 intervention resulted in a slight decrease in PS-1 gene expression but did not affect. The differences in aproE gene expression among these three pecan oil dosage groups disappeared. Conclusion: Both E2 and pecan oil PS-1 can attenuate PS-1 gene expression and elevate aproE gene expression so as to reduce Aβ level. Their regulatory effects on PS-1 gene might be achieved by different pathways; however, the same pathway seem to be used by them to regulate aproE gene.

Key words: RT-PCR, PS-1, apoE, A&beta, ovariectomized rats