Animal Testing
The results of animal experiments using the plasmalogen which we extracted. Left panel shows the formations of dendrites in no application of plasmalogen. Right panel shows the those in application of plasmalogen, DIV6 means the sixth day from embryo, DIV 14 the fourteenth day embryo. These data shows direct application of plasmalogen enhances the formation of dendrites in primary hippocampal cultured neurons.
This figure explains plasmalogen enhance the neurogenesis the memory-related hippocampal cells of mice immunostaining data. As shown in the right panel, the Plasmalogen-diet mice showed more positive neurons in the dentate gyrus, compared with normal diet.
It is already known that Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), one of inflammatory agent, promotes amyloid-β accumulations, which induce Alzheimer’s disease. As shown at the LPS column, the cell is stained green, indicating that amyloidosis took place in the CA1 area of the hippocampus, after LPS administration. In contrast, after the simultaneous administration of LPS and Plasmalogen, as shown in the LPS + Plasmalogen column, the cell was not stained green. This indicates that amyloidosis did not occur when Plasmalogen were administered.
Plasmalogen promotes neurogenesis in senescence-accelerated mice and normal mice. This results in effective treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. Plasmalogen inhibits neuroinflammation and amyloid β-protein accumulation in the brain. This results in effective prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Knock down of plasmalogen synthesizing enzyme (GNPAT) by sh-RNA in the hippocampus reduced plasmalogen and impairs spatial memory. Dietary plasmalogen for 6 weeks increased hippocampal plasmalogen and enhanced memory task performance. Dietary plasmalogen activated Akt and ERK1/2, in the hippocampus, to phosphorylate CREB, then induced expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is well known to enhance memory function by affecting neuronal plasticity and synapse/spine formation. plasmalogen are rich in membrane lipid rafts and dietary plasmalogen result in a localization of BDNF receptor, TrkB in the lipid raft. These findings suggest that plasmalogen may enhance the memory by activating BDNF- TrkB signaling in the hippocampus.
