IRVINE, Calif., March 1 (UPI) -- A high-fat diet and related increased production of a specific protein appear to protect brain cells from damage caused by prolonged seizures, researchers reported Friday.
"What we understand now is a very important mechanism of how cells in the immature brain protect themselves," lead investigator Dr. Tallie Baram, professor of neurological sciences the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, told United Press International. "Now that we are aware of it, we can see if it also appears in the mature brain."
In a study published in the Feb. 28 online issue of the Annals of Neurology, Baram and her research team reported finding very high levels of uncoupling protein 2, or UCP2, in the brains of newborn rats. They suspect the high level of UCP2 might provide the protection from brain damage seen in human infants who have seizures.
Previous research has shown fatty acids, the products of dietary fat metabolism, stimulate production of UCP2. Rat pups obtain most of their nutrition from maternal milk, which is very rich in fat.
Seizures affect one in every 25 infants and children and about 1 percent of adults. Adult seizures cause progressive loss of brain volume. Seizures damage and destroy nerve cells in adults by interfering with the function of the mitochondria -- the "energy factories of cells," as they are called -- that shuttle compounds back and forth during the cellular processes that produce energy.
Understanding how the immature brain prevents seizure-induced cell injury or death could lead to new methods to reduce or prevent seizure damage in adults.
"A seizure can 'rev up' brain cells and their corresponding demand for fuel," Baram said, "The energy assembly line cannot keep up with this demand. The system gets jammed, reactive oxygen compounds form, and the cell is injured or dies," she explained.
Newborn and immature brains appear to be protected from such damage. Baram and her colleagues hypothesize that UCP2, found in mitochondrial membranes, reduces the formation of reactive oxygen compounds and decreases the potential for cell injury in the brains of the immature rats.
Baram also noted the protective actions of UCP2 might explain why a ketogenic, or high-fat, diet, used to treat severe, drug-resistant seizures in children, prevents or dramatically reducing seizures. "It is well known that the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet can successfully treat children whose seizures are not controlled by standard antiepileptic medications," she said.
"This study provides a possible mechanism by which such a diet can provide seizure protection in children with devastating epilepsy," Dr. Carl Stafstrom, associate professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research laboratory at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, told UPI.
"The authors document protection from seizure-induced brain damage by linking the high fat diet to improved energy utilization by mitochondria in the developing brain," Strafstrom said. "This is a pivotal study in our search to understand how the ketogenic diet works."
Stafstrom cautioned that the diet is not "for parents to try at home." Rather, he said, it is a strictly monitored medical treatment that must be used under medical supervision.
"Our findings may very well help adults, but the answer is not simply to eat a lot of fat," Baram said -- as in the popular dietary program promoted by Dr. Robert C. Atkins. "In adults, we will go for designer drugs that target the uncoupling proteins and activate them."
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(Reported by Bruce Sylvester, UPI Science News, in West Palm Beach, Fla.)
