Avocado peel extract: The effect of radiation-induced on neuroanatomical and behavioral changes in rats

Avocado (Persea americana) contains a variety of physiological active substances such as polyphenol, which has excellent antioxidant properties. This study investigated the radioprotective effect of avocado peel extract on congenital malformations and on the behavior of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Experimental animals were randomly classified into four groups: NC Group, normal control; PA Group, oral administration with avocado peel extract (200 mg/kg/day); IR Group, irradiation; and PA+IR Group, irradiation after orally administered with avocado peel extract. For irradiation, 2 Gy of 6 MV X-ray was used once for the whole body. After that, congenital malformations, histopathological evaluation of the brain, and behavioral evaluation were performed in the obtained offspring. Although the body weight of the offspring was decreased by radiation exposure, it was confirmed that the decrease in weight was smaller when treated with PA. As the congenital malformations, hydrocephalus, loss of eyes, and abnormal rat tail occurred, and the result for the PA+IR Group was significantly lower than that of IR Group. Histopathologically, the length of the cerebral cortex of the PA+IR Group was similar to that of the non-radiation group. It was confirmed that emotional and behavioral disorders such as anxiety and depression were improved in the open field test (OFT) and elevated plus maze (EPM) test. And proved that working memory and cognitive ability were enhanced in the novel object recognition (NOR) test and spontaneous alternation Y-maze (SAY) test. Therefore, it was concluded that avocado peel extract can reduce the incidence of congenital malformations and improve growth disorders, memory and cognitive abilities. In the future, based on these results, we will conduct research on the hippocampus and amygdala, which are major regions of the brain, and additional research on cell biology.