Recently we demonstrated that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is highly neuroprotective when animals were
allowed to survive during oneweek. This studywas conducted to establishwhether the neuroprotection induced
by DHA persists with chronic survival. Sprague–Dawley rats underwent 2 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion
(MCAo) and treated with DHA or saline at 3 h after MCAo. Animals received neurobehavioral examination (composite
neuroscore, rota-rod, beam walking and Y maze tests) followed by ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging
and histopathology at 3 weeks. DHA improved composite neurologic score beginning on day 1 by 20%, which
persisted throughout weeks 1–3 by 24–41% compared to the saline-treated group. DHA prolonged the latency
in rota-rod on weeks 2–3 by 162–178%, enhanced balance performance in the beam walking test on weeks 1
and 2 by 42–51%, and decreased the number of entries in the Y maze test by 51% and spontaneous alteration
by 53% on week 2 compared to the saline-treated group. DHA treatment reduced tissue loss (computed from
T2-weighted images) by 24% and total and cortical infarct volumes by 46% and 54% compared to the salinetreated
group. These results show that DHA confers enduring ischemic neuroprotection.
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.