The effects of various feeding protocols on CA1 pyramidal cell layer thickness, neuron-specific proteins and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain.

<p>Seven-week old male mice had free access to regular chow or high fat diet or were allowed to have free access to regular chow every other day (intermittent fasting) for 11 months. Their brains were then harvested to measure CA1 pyramidal cell layer thickness (panel A) and expression of NeuN, drebrin and synaptophysin in the cerebral cortex (panel B) and hippocampus (panel C) as well as the BDNF levels in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus (panel D). The protein abundance results in each mouse were normalized by the mean value of the corresponding protein in the regular diet-fed mice. Results are means ± S.E.M (n = 7 – 12). * P<0.05 compared with mice on regular diet ad libitum. GAPDH: glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenase; Hippo: hippocampus; SP: synaptophysin; RD: regular diet; IF: intermittent fasting; HFD: high fat diet.