Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 22 pp 10356—10373

Figure 1. Dietary folic acid (FA) supplementation raised folate concentrations and decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in Senescence Accelerated Mouse Prone 8 (SAMP8) mice. Aged SAMP8 mice were assigned to four treatment groups: FA-deficient diet (FA-D) group, FA-normal diet (FA-N) group, low FA-supplemented diet (FA-L) group, and high FA-supplemented diet (FA-H) group. There were also an age-matched senescence-accelerated mouse resistant 1 (SAMR1) control group (Con-R), and a young SAMP8 control group (Con-Y), both of which were fed with FA-normal diet. Folate concentrations were detected in serum [F_(5,54) = 65.507, P<0.001], red blood cell (RBC) [F_(5,54) = 39.041, P<0.001] (A) and brain [F_(5,54) = 64.878, P<0.001] (B). Hcy concentrations were detected in serum [F_(5,54) = 250.012, P<0.001] (C) and brain [F_(5,54) = 29.529, P<0.001] (D). ROS levels were indicated by H₂O₂ levels in serum [F_(5,54) = 64.322, P<0.001] (E) and brain [F_(5,54) = 44.100, P<0.001] (F), HO^• suppression abilities in serum [F_(5,54) = 71.992, P<0.001] (G) and brain [F_(5,54) = 65.702, P<0.001] (H), and O₂^{• –} suppression abilities in serum [F_(5,54) = 26.796, P<0.001] (I) and brain [F_(5,54) = 30.031, P<0.001] (J). Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) (n= 10 mice/group). *P<0.05 compared with FA-N group. ^#P<0.05 compared with Con-Y group. ^&P<0.05 compared between FA-L and FA-H groups.