ISSN: 2577-4360
Authors: Igbayilola YD*, Aina OS, Ogunkoya OO, Williams OD and Olaoye FA
Objective: The use of plants as source of remedies for the treatment of diseases can be traced back to the prehistoric times. This study investigated the role of perinatal walnut (Juglans regia L.) supplemented diet on oxidative and anti-inflammatory responses in male offspring of Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods: Twenty-four pregnant female and 12 male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. They were fed either a normal diet or walnut supplemented (WS) diet. The dams were given WS diet up to parturition (in-utero group, IUWS), or from birth to post-natal day 21 (lactation group, LWS) or for a period covering both groups (combined group, CWS). Control (CONT) dams with CONT diet was run in parallel for comparison. On postnatal day 63, serum cholesterol (CHOL), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL), hepatic lipase (HL), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), malonaldehyde (MDA) and tumor necrotic factor alpha (TNF-α) were assayed. Results: The results revealed a significant decrease (P = .05) of AST in IUWS, LWS and CWS compared with CONT. ALT decreased in IUWS, LWS and CWS but not significant (p>.05) while AST significantly decreased (P=.05) only in CWS and nonsignificantly in IUWS and LWS (p>.05) compared with CONT. CHOL decreased significantly (P = .05) in LWS, CWS and nonsignificantly (p>.05) in IUWS. TG showed a significant decrease (P = .05) in IUWS and CWS compared with CONT while HL showed a significant increase (P = .05) in IUWS, LWS and CWS compared with CONT. Assay of antioxidant enzymes showed a significant increase (P = .05) of GSH, SOD and CAT with concomitant decrease of MDA in IUWS, LWS and CWS compared with CONT. TNF alpha significantly upregulated (P = .05) in IUWS, LWS and CWS compared with CONT. Conclusion: In conclusion, the data described in this study suggest that perinatal walnut supplemented diet increased oxidative and anti-inflammatory responses and improved lipid and hepatic functions observed suggest an attestation to its use in folk medicine though the effects were dependent on the window of exposure
Keywords: Antioxidant; Triglyceride; Intrauterine; Perinatal; Walnut
