Author(s): Xiang Gao, Yuhong Gan, Kefeng Wu, Wende Li and Ren Huang
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) have been wildly considered for positive effect of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the intake of n-3 PUFAs is not encouraging to draw firm conclusion through preclinical and clinical research. The contribution of debate is derived from interference of dietary n-3 PUFAs, because of controlling the components and ratio of dietary PUFAs difficultly. In this context, transgenic fat-1 mouse that is capable of converting n-6 to n-3 fatty acids by feeding high n-6 PUFAs diet, leading to balance high n-3/n-6 PUFAs ratio, with increasing endogenous n-3 PUFAs and decreasing n-6 PUFAs in their organs and tissues. Thus, fat-1 mice is an ideal model to study the efficacy and mechanism of n-3 PUFAs in AD research, without the interference of the inevitable factors from dietary n-3 PUFAs. The fat-1 transgenic mice have become a useful tool for studying the potential benefit of endogenous n-3 PUFAs in behavior and neuromechanism of AD.
