Açai pulp improves cognition and insulin sensitivity in obese mice.

Scope: Obesity and insulin resistance constitute risk factors for the development of tauopathies and other neurodegenerative diseases. (Poly)phenol compounds are under study for its role in protecting effects against neural injuries and degeneration. Here, we investigated the effect of Amazonian açai pulp (AP) intake in the prevention of memory and cognitive impairment resulting from a high-fat diet intake in mice.

Methods And Results: Obesity and insulin resistance was induced with a high-fat diet and supplemented with 2% AP to investigate peripheral insulin resistance, recognition memory and tau protein stability via AKT/GSK3-β signaling pathway. The consumption of AP for 70 days improved peripheral insulin sensitivity and phosphorylation of AKT/GSK3-β in mice hippocampi. The animals fed high-fat diets supplemented with AP showed better performance in the novel object recognition test (NOR) in comparison to the H group. Catalase activity and reduced glutathione (GSH) values were improved in the treated mice.

Conclusions: These results suggest that the supplementation of AP can attenuate the effects of high-fat diet consumption in peripheral insulin resistance and improve cognitive behavior.