the effect of pre-feeding flaxseed oil (linum usitatissimum) on blood brain barrier permeability in rat stroke model

abstract ischemic brain edema is one of the most important complications of a stroke. this study aims to investigate the impact of pre-feeding of flax seed oil on blood-brain barrier in rat stroke model. in this experimental study animals were randomly divided into 3 groups of experiment, sham, and control. each testing group itself was consisted of 3 subgroups receiving doses of flaxseed oil with 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 ml / kg of body weight for 30 days. the control group received distilled water, while therapy and ischemia induction were not done for sham group. in order to conduct ischemia induction and evaluating the permeability of the blood-brain barrier by measuring the optical density level of the evans blue mcao (middle cerebral artery occlusion) model surgery was conducted on groups two hours after the last feeding dose. the data were analyzed via anova test. the permeability decrease of the blood-brain barrier in groups with doses of 0.5 and 0.75 ml against the control group was statistically significant (p˂0/05). there were significant differences between the right and left hemispheres in control groups with dose of 0.25ml (p˂0/05).but the differences between the right and left hemispheres in therapy group with doses of 0.5 and 0.75 were insignificant. according to the findings of this study, pre-treatment with flax seed oil can reduce the permeability of the blood-brain barrier in a model of ischemia-reperfusion in rats. but still more works to extend these observations including the investigation of neurological deficits are needed to be done.