Platelet and Brain Fatty Acids: a model for the classification of the animal world? Part I

Recently Cocchi-Tonello have investigated the platelet fatty acid profile in normal and depressive subjects. The data allowed us to create a particular Artificial Neural Net¬work, the so-called Self Organizing Map (SOM). The SOM distributes all the subjects investigated over a plane, also according to the degree of saturation/unsaturation of the fatty acids identified as markers of the depressive pathology (Palmitic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Arachidonic Acid). In this way it is possible to distribute all animals and humans over the map according to the percentage of the fatty acids (Pal¬mitic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Arachidonic Acid)characteristic of each of the animal species investigated. Because of the specific characteristics of the SOM and the af¬finity of the platelet with the neuron, we considered that the SOM could also be used to classify the brains of different ani¬mal species. Because of the low level of Linoleic Acid in the brain, all the brains were classified in the same position on the map, very close to the area of depressive subjects. Is the brain genetically organized for the risk of depression? In this sense, is the brain, influenced by the modulation of the fatty acids or by the gene expression of the fatty acids? We do not yet know the final answers to these questions, but it is significant that the fatty acids which make the difference be¬tween the normal condition and the depressive condition shape the brain in the way we found. In any case, we know that Major Depression is characterized by a high level of Arachidonic Acid, both in platelets and in the brain.