The effect of pre-treatment with olive oil on TNFR1/NF-кB inflammatory pathway in rat ischemic stroke model

Introduction: Ischemic stroke is a serious neurological disease and a leading cause of death and severe disability in the world. A key component of the Mediterranean diet is olive oil, which contains compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. In this regard, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of olive oil on the ischemic damages and the inflammatory pathway of TNFR1/NF-кB in various regions of the rat brain. Methods: In this experimental research 58 male Wistar rats were totally divided into six groups including sham, control (intact), control (middle cerebral artery occlusion, MCAO), and treatments. The intact group received distilled water, while the treatment groups received different doses (0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 ml/kg) of olive oil by gastric gavage for 30 days. Two hours after the last gavage, the rats were subjected to 60 min MCAO surgery. Twenty four hours later, the neurologic defects scores, infarct volume (in total, cortex and striatum of hemisphere) and the inflammatory factors protein expression were evaluated separately. Data were analyzed by kruskal-wallis and two-way ANOVA tests. Results: The olive oil 0.75 ml/kg-received group displayed a significant reduction in the infarct volume, the neurological scores and the inflammatory factors protein level in comparison to the control group. Moreover, this significant difference was observed in the cortex and striatum. Conclusion: The present results demonstrated that the neuroprotective effects of the olive oil could improve ischemic injuries. It seems that its positive impacts are partly attributed to anti-inflammatory effects of the olive oil.