The Myelinogenesis Process in Undernourished Rats Rehabilitated with Different Dietary Lipids

Our previous studies have indicated that pups born from mothers fed lipids obtained from yeast (Candida lypolitica) grown on n-alkanes during pregnancy and lactation show an acceleration of myelinogenesis. In the present work we carried out experiments using an undernutrition model to establish if such microbial lipids can also play a role in accelerating the myelin process in hypomyelinated rats. This model was produced by restricting maternal dietary intake during the last 4 days of pregnancy and the lactating period. Diet-restricted dams were divided into 3 groups when pups were 14 days old. The first group was switched to ad libitum diet containing 9% margarine and 1% corn oil, the second to ad libitum feeding diet containing 10% of microbial lipids and the third to ad libitum feeding standard diet containing 3% of lipids. The offspring were sacrificed at differing days of nutritional rehabilitation. The recovery of the body and brain weight was slower in rats fed 3% of lipids than animals maintained on 10% of lipids. The test group showed an earlier increase both in the relative levels of proteolipid protein (PLP) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) mRNAs and in the 2'-3'-cyclic nucleotide 3' phosphohydrolase (CNPase) activity compared with the other two groups. These results indicate that the reversal of myelin delay would seem to be accelerated in the group fed microbial lipids.