• Fábio Teixeira Kuhn, Verônica Tironi Dias, Karine Roversi, Luciana Taschetto Vey, Daniele Leão de Freitas, Camila Simonetti Pase, Katiane Roversi, Juliana Cristina Veit, Tatiana Emanuelli, and Marilise Escobar Bürger.
• Pharmacology Post Graduation Program, Physiology and Pharmacology Department, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil.
• Neurotox Res. 2015 Nov 1; 28 (4): 319-31.

AbstractAmphetamine (AMPH) is an addictive psychostimulant drug whose use has been related to neurotoxicity. Experimentally, AMPH increases anxiety-like symptoms, showing addictive properties. In the last decades, the growing consumption of processed foods has provided an excess of saturated and trans fats in detriment of essential fatty acids, which may modify the lipid profile of brain membranes, thus modifying its permeability and dopaminergic neurotransmission. Here, we assessed the influence of brain incorporation of different fatty acids (FA) on AMPH self-administration. Three groups of young male rats were orally supplemented from weaning with a mixture of soybean oil (SO, rich in n-6 FA) and fish oil (FO, rich in n-3 FA), hydrogenated vegetable fat (HVF, rich in trans fatty acids--TFA), or water (control group). These animals were born from dams that were supplemented with the same fat from pregnancy to lactation. Anxiety-like symptoms and locomotor index were assessed in elevated plus maze and open-field (OF), respectively, while brain molecular expressions of dopaminergic receptors, dopamine transporter (DAT), and BDNF were determined in the cortex and hippocampus. HVF increased the frequency of AMPH self-administration and was associated with reinforcement and withdrawal signs as observed by increased anxiety-like symptoms. Contrarily, SO/FO decreased these parameters. Increased BDNF protein together with decreased DAT expression was observed in the hippocampus of HVF group. Based on these findings, our study points to a harmful influence of trans fats on drug addiction and craving symptoms, whose mechanism may be related to changes in the dopaminergic neurotransmission.

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