The Impacts of Estrogen and Sesame Oil on the Hippocampal Histomorphologic Changes in Mice

The hippocampus is one of the most important brain regions during adulthood, which has estrogen receptors in both genders. Since, both the estrogen and sesame have neurogenic properties, the objective of the present study was to conduct the impact of estrogen and sesame oil on the hippocampal histomorphologic changes in male mice.

20 male mice aged between 35-45 weeks were categorized into four groups: control, (received normal saline), experimental group I (sesame oil only, 10 µl/ kg/day), experimental group II (estradiol 1 μl/kg/day), and experimental group III (estradiol 10 μl/kg/day). After a month, brain perfusion was done and the cerebral tissues were fixed for morphological evaluation.

There was a significant increase in the thickness of the dentate gyrus (DG), Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1), and Cornu Ammonis3 (CA3) regions of all experimental groups compared to the control mice. Furthermore, there were a significant increase in the number of the granular cells and the pyramidal cells in the mice treated with sesame oil as well as estradiol at 1 µl/kg/day. The mean number of necrosis-like cells in the CA1 and CA3 regions in the groups treated with sesame oil and estradiol at 1 µl/kg/day was significantly lower the mice treated with 10 µl/kg/day estradiol.

Our data indicate that estrogen and sesame oil maintain the thickness of the CA1, CA3 and DG regions and enhance the number of the granular cells and the pyramidal cells in the hippocampal DG and CA1 areas, respectively. These findings suggest the modulatory effects of estrogen and sesame on the hippocampal function.