Effect of olive oil on brain's lipid and calcium content after partial hepatectomy in mice.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of olive oil (00) enriched diet on the lipid content of mice brain during the early phase of liver regeneration and to test a relationship of these changes with calcium content. C57BI mice were fed over 21 days with diet enriched with olive oil, containing predominantly oleic acid (18:1n-9). The animals were one-third partially hepatectomised (pHx) under aether anaesthesia. Total lipids were extracted from tissue samples with a chloroform-methanol (2:1, v/v) mixture according to Folch et al. Mineral concentration was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) after microwave brain tissue digestion. The diet containing 00 increased both total lipid content and the calcium concentration in brain during the early phase of liver regeneration (12hrs post pHx), suggesting that monounsaturated oleic acid might interact with some metal-dependent activities that control changes in the brain during liver regeneration.