The effect of intraperitoneal injection sesame oil on fear conditioning in the female mice.

Sesame oil contains unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid, Oleic acid and Lecithin. Lecithin and specially unsaturated fatty acids have important role in several physiological functions. In his project effect of sesame oil injection (i.p.) on fear conditioning was studied.Female mice (25±3 g) were used. Animals divided to four groups: control and three test groups which were injected by 0.1 ml sesame oil (i.p.) for 1, 3 and 4 days respectively. Fear conditioning test carried out in three steps. 1- Animals take place in test compartment for 5 min in first day. 2- in second day, each animal exposed to noise for 3 min and finally received foot shock (5 sec, 1mA). 3-After 1 hour and 24 hour (in the last day) each animal exposed to noise for 1 min and freezing time was measured. All data was analyzed by one way ANOVA.There was not any significant difference between control and other groups in fear conditioning test after 1 hour.There was any significant difference in Fear conditioning test after 24 hour between control animals and animals which sesame oil was injected once. There were significant difference in freezing time after 24 hour between control group and groups which sesame oil was injected for 3 and 4 days (P<0.03). Sesame oil had not effects on memory recalling, one hour after foot shock. It seems that sesame oil stimulates mechanisms that affected memory in long period. Probably lecithin of sesame oil acts as a source for acetylcholine and potentiate cholinergic system in brain specifically hippocampus. More studies need to determine facts.