Astaxanthin is a potential
antioxidant which shows neuroprotective property. We aimed to investigate the age-dependent and region-specific
antioxidant effects of
astaxanthin in mice brain. Animals were divided into 4 groups; treatment young (3 months, n = 6) (AY), treatment old (16 months, n = 6) (AO), placebo young (3 months, n = 6) (PY) and placebo old (16 months, n = 6) (PO) groups. Treatment group was given
astaxanthin (2 mg/kg/day,
body weight), and placebo group was given 100 μl of 0.9%
normal saline orally to the healthy Swiss albino mice for 4 weeks. The level of non-enzymatic oxidative markers namely
malondialdehyde (MDA);
nitric oxide (NO); advanced
protein oxidation product (APOP);
glutathione (GSH) and the activity of enzymatic
antioxidants i.e.;
catalase (CAT) and
superoxide dismutase (SOD) were determined from the isolated brain regions. Treatment with
astaxanthin significantly (p < 0.05) reduces the level of MDA, APOP, NO in the cortex, striatum, hypothalamus, hippocampus and cerebellum in both age groups.
Astaxanthin markedly (p < 0.05) enhances the activity of CAT and SOD
enzymes while improves the level of GSH in the brain. Overall, improvement of oxidative markers was significantly greater in the young group than the aged animal. In conclusion, we report that the activity of
astaxanthin is age-dependent, higher in young in compared to the aged brain.