ArticlePloS one2016
Cognition and Synaptic-Plasticity Related Changes in Aged Rats Supplemented with 8- and 10-Carbon Medium Chain Triglycerides.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Are ketogenic diets promising for Alzheimer's disease? A translational review.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2020Pooled it
- A randomized safety and feasibility crossover trial of two Mediterranean-ketogenic interventions in individuals with Parkinson's disease.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2026Trial
- Medium-chain triglycerides improve cognition and systemic metabolism in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Providing alternative fuel for the brain in anorexia nervosa: a review of the literature on ketones and their effects on metabolism and the brain.Translational psychiatry · 2025Review
- Ketogenic Diet Mitigates Age-Related Cognitive Decline and Neuroinflammation in Rats, While Antibiotics Exacerbate Brain Health Risks.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2025Article
- Dietary Intake of Octanoic Acid Restores UBE3A Expression and Improves the Behavioral Phenotypes in a Mouse Model of Angelman Syndrome.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Article
- Decanoic acid, an MCT dietary component, alleviates cognitive impairment, cellular senescence, and promotes autophagy in accelerated aging and neurotoxic mouse models induced by chronic administration of D-galactose and D-galactose/AlClFrontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Review
- Ketogenic diet and behavior: insights from experimental studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Review
- A Potential Role for the Ketogenic Diet in Alzheimer's Disease Treatment: Exploring Pre-Clinical and Clinical Evidence.Metabolites · 2023Review
- Review
- Short- and long-term cognitive and metabolic effects of medium-chain triglyceride supplementation in rats.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Article
- Feeding the Brain: Effect of Nutrients on Cognition, Synaptic Function, and AMPA Receptors.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Olive- and Coconut-Oil-Enriched Diets Decreased Secondary Bile Acids and Regulated Metabolic and Transcriptomic Markers of Brain Injury in the Frontal Cortexes of NAFLD Pigs.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Effects of Ketogenic Diet on Neuroinflammation in Neurodegenerative Diseases.Aging and disease · 2022Article
- Acute and chronic effects of oral administration of a medium-chain fatty acid, capric acid, on locomotor activity and anxiety-like and depression-related behaviors in adult male C57BL/6J mice.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2022Article
- Supplementation of Regular Diet With Medium-Chain Triglycerides for Procognitive Effects: A Narrative Review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- The Impact of Medium Chain and Polyunsaturated ω-3-Fatty Acids on Amyloid-β Deposition, Oxidative Stress and Metabolic Dysfunction Associated with Alzheimer's Disease.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- NREM delta power and AD-relevant tauopathy are associated with shared cortical gene networks.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Brain glucose hypometabolism is a common feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies have shown that cognition is improved by providing AD patients with an alternate energy source: ketones derived from either ketogenic diet or supplementation with medium chain triglycerides (MCT). Recently, data on the neuroprotective capacity of MCT-derived medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) suggest 8-carbon and 10-carbon MCFA may have cognition-enhancing properties which are not related to ketone production. We investigated the effect of 8 week treatment with MCT8, MCT10 or sunflower oil supplementation (5% by weight of chow diet) in 21 month old Wistar rats. Both MCT diets increased ketones plasma similarly compared to control diet, but MCT diets did not increase ketones in the brain. Treatment with MCT10, but not MCT8, significantly improved novel object recognition memory compared to control diet, while social recognition increased in both MCT groups. MCT8 and MCT10 diets decreased weight compared to control diet, where MCFA plasma levels were higher in MCT10 groups than in MCT8 groups. Both MCT diets increased IRS-1 (612) phosphorylation and decreased S6K phosphorylation (240/244) but only MCT10 increased Akt phosphorylation (473). MCT8 supplementation increased synaptophysin, but not PSD-95, in contrast MCT10 had no effect on either synaptic marker. Expression of Ube3a, which controls synaptic stability, was increased by both MCT diets. Cortex transcription via qPCR showed that immediate early genes related to synaptic plasticity (arc, plk3, junb, egr2, nr4a1) were downregulated by both MCT diets while MCT8 additionally down-regulated fosb and egr1 but upregulated grin1 and gba2. These results demonstrate that treatment of 8- and 10-carbon length MCTs in aged rats have slight differential effects on synaptic stability, protein synthesis and behavior that may be independent of brain ketone levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.