Brainstem mediates diazepam enhancement of palatability and feeding: microinjections into fourth ventricle versus lateral ventricle

The hypothesis that benzodiazepine-induced hyperphagia is due to a specific enhancement of the palatability of foods has been supported by previous ‘taste reactivity’ studies of affective (hedonic and aversive) reactions to taste palatability. Diazepam and chlordiazepoxide enhance hedonic reactions of rats (rhythmic tongue protrusions, etc.) to sweet tastes in a receptor-specific fashion. A role for brainstem circuits has been indicated by a previous demonstration of the persistence of the taste reactivity enhancement by diazepam after midbrain decerebration. The present study examined whether benzodiazepine brainstem receptors are the chief substrates for palatability enhancement even in intact brains. We compared the effectiveness of benzodiazepine microinjections to elicit feeding and enhance hedonic reactions when delivered into either the lateral ventricle (forebrain) or the fourth ventricle (brainstem) of rats. The results show diazepam is reliably more effective at eliciting feeding and enhancing positive hedonic reactions to oral sucrose when microinjections are made in the fourth ventricle than in the lateral ventricle. We conclude that brainstem neural systems containing benzodiazepine-GABA receptors are likely to be the chief substrates for benzodiazepine-induced palatability enhancement.     

Role of dietary fat in calorie intake and weight gain

This paper reviews the literature on the role of dietary fat in calorie intake and body weight gain in humans and laboratory animals. An overview of 40 animal studies which compared growth on high-fat (HF) and high-carbohydrate (HC) solid/powdered diets indicated that the HF diet elicited greater weight gain in 33 out of 40 studies. Enhanced growth on the HF diet was often, but not exclusively, attributable to greater caloric intake. Additional evidence for the growth-enhancing effect of HF diets emerges from "diet option" and "supermarket" feeding studies in rats, and experimental and epidemiological studies in humans. Three principal factors that contribute to the different responses to HF and HC diets are (a) caloric density, (b) sensory properties and palatability, and (c) postabsorptive processing. It is concluded that both calorie intake and metabolic energy expenditure are biased towards weight gain when a HF diet is consumed, and that the high caloric density of high-fat diets plays a primary role in weight gain. Humans may be biologically predisposed to gain weight when a HF diet is consumed.     

Schedule and quinine induced deprivation in feeding and refeeding

Twenty female albino rats were adapted to either 0 or 23 hr of food deprivation. Half of each group was then fed 0.125% quinine sulfate adulterated diet for seven days. Following the quinine feeding, ad lib feeding (refeeding) was instituted for 14 days. Several conclusions were drawn from the results: (1) rats on a deprivation schedule fail to show a predicted change to regulation on the basis of taste rather than calories; (2) rats on food deprivation actually increase their relative intake of water; (3) refeeding after a deprivation schedule does not lead to depression of initial intake below normal, but otherwise the process of recovery follows the same course as after total starvation.     

A selective modulation of the olfactory bulb electrical activity in relation to the learning of palatability in hungry and satiated rats

We attempted to determine whether a neutral odor which had become palatable as a result of learning had also acquired the property of activating the mitral cells of the olfactory bulb of hungry rats to the same extent as the odor of their usual nutriment. Male Wistar rats have been accustomed for various times to eat, during a single daily meal, exclusively a synthetic diet, either flavoured or not with eucalyptol. The mitral cell multiunit electrical activity was recorded in chronically implanted hungry and satiated animals. It was shown that: (1) in the rats having received the flavoured diet for one month when grown up, eucalyptol behaved as a nonalimentary odor towards mitral cells; (2) in the rats having received the flavoured diet (already given to the mothers) from weaning to the test period, eucalyptol behaved as a food odor at the mitral cell level, but amyl acetate, a control odor, did not activate mitral cells in hungry animals; (3) the odor of the diet with or without eucalyptol activated mitral cells at first in hungry rats, and this property was reinforced, for either diet, by its consumption beginning early and maintained continuously. It was concluded that palatability is dynamically related to the animal's previous experience, and that its modifications induce various degrees of mitral activation in hungry rats. This property allowed an electrophysiological measure of odor palatability to be proposed. The results are discussed in relation to the behavioral and neurophysiological maturation of animals.     

Effect of limited access to sucrose on overeating and patterns of feeding

Four groups of adult rats, housed on a 12-12, light-dark cycle, were allowed access to a nutritionally complete diet and water. Three of these groups were also offered a 32% solution of sucrose. The sucrose was available for either the 24-hour period, the 12 hours of light or the 12 hours of dark. Access to sucrose led to overeating and excessive weight gain. These effects were more pronounced when the sucrose was available for the 24-hour period or during the dark. Limited access to sucrose produced a reversal of the rat's usual circadian pattern of feeding when the sucrose was available during the light and increased the rat's nocturnal hyperphagia when it was available during the dark. Sucrose intake and the proportion of calories taken from sucrose were higher in the 24-hour access group and the dark access group than the light access group. Access to sucrose did not induce a pattern of dietary selection that compromised growth or health. It appears that access to a palatable carbohydrate solution can lead to overeating and major changes in the circadian organization of feeding behavior. These data emphasize the potent role that external factors can play in the control of ingestive behavior.     

Nutrient composition: effects on appetite in monkeys with oral factors held constant

The effects of macronutrients on appetite and total caloric intake in monkeys (Macaca mulatta) was studied using a new feeding and infusion system which yoked intragastric infusion of various nutrients to oral ad lib intake and removed the confounding factor of palatability from the assessment of nutrient effects on feeding behavior. A suction-activated liquid diet feeding system provided free access to a nutritionally complete diet, with 1 ml of diet delivered orally by pump with each discrete suck by the monkey. A second pump was yoked to the oral feeding pump and delivered various nutrients directly into the stomach via an implanted intragastric cannula. Thus, while oral diet composition remained constant, the net diet reaching the stomach varied over ranges of 28 to 77% carbohydrate, 16 to 65% fat and 7 to 36% protein. No significant differences in total caloric intake were observed between intakes of diets with net composition of high carbohydrate or high fat. When protein was increased to 36%, total caloric intake was generally reduced, and this effect was sustained for at least 3 weeks. Therefore, protein appears to have an increased specific satiating effect beyond the caloric content, when compared to carbohydrate or fat.     

Examining the effects of lipopolysaccharide and cholecystokinin on water ingestion: comparing intake and palatability

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cholecystokinin (CCK) have been shown to have anorectic properties in a variety of species. The present study examined the effects of LPS and CCK, both alone and in combination, on two different aspects of water ingestion, water intake and palatability. On test days, animals were first injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with either LPS (200 microg/kg) or NaCl vehicle, and 2 h later received a second injection of either CCK (8 microg/kg) or NaCl vehicle. In Experiment 1, water intake was monitored for 1 h on 3 separate test days 72 h apart; while in Experiment 2, water palatability was assessed using the taste reactivity test (TRT), on two separate test days 72 h apart. Both LPS and CCK significantly (p<0.05) reduced water intake, with the effects of combined LPS with CCK being more pronounced than either agent injected alone. Rats developed a rapid tolerance to the effects of LPS on water intake on subsequent exposures to LPS. Results from the TRT indicated that LPS enhanced water palatability (p<0.05), as evidenced by a high level of ingestive responding, whereas CCK produced a pattern of responding indicative of satiety. LPS plus CCK reduced ingestive responding on the first test day, but these responses were significantly increased on the second test day (p<0.05). These results demonstrate that although LPS reduces water intake, it enhances water palatability. The results further underscore the necessity for examining palatability changes in addition to intake measures when studying the regulation of feeding and drinking.     

The hedonic impact and intake of food are increased by midazolam microinjection in the parabrachial nucleus

Benzodiazepines have been reported to induce eating when administered into the brainstem of rats (either the fourth ventricle or the parabrachial nucleus). Benzodiazepines in the brainstem also have been reported to enhance the hedonic impact of taste, as measured by hedonic/aversive taste reactivity patterns, when administered to the fourth ventricle. The present study examined whether the parabrachial nucleus in particular is a brainstem site of the benzodiazepine-produced enhancement of eating and palatability. Food intake (cereal mash) was measured after brainstem microinjections of midazolam or vehicle (0.0, 7.5, and 15.0 microg) into the parabrachial nucleus, the nucleus of the solitary tract, the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, or the fourth ventricle (60 microg). We used the taste reactivity paradigm to measure hedonic/aversive affective reactions elicited from rats by oral infusions of a bittersweet solution (7% sucrose-0.01% quinine). Positive hedonic reactions and negative aversive reactions to sucrose-quinine were also measured after microinjections of midazolam (0.0, 7.5, and 15 microg) into the parabrachial nucleus. Midazolam increased food intake and selectively enhanced positive hedonic taste reactivity patterns to the bittersweet solution when microinjections were delivered to the parabrachial nucleus. When administered to the other brainstem sites at the same doses, however, midazolam had no effect. We therefore conclude that the parabrachial nucleus can mediate the benzodiazepine-induced enhancement of the hedonic impact of taste as well as mediating the enhancement of eating behavior.     

长期使用敌鼠钠盐地区杀灭黄胸鼠的效果评价

目的评价长期使用敌鼠钠盐的地区敌鼠钠盐对黄胸鼠的毒杀效果。方法现场使用不同浓度毒饵进行7d饱和投药。结果0.10%和0.16%稻谷毒饵的盗食率分别为35.99%和26.21%,灭效分别为79.44%和92.70%。0.10%小麦毒饵的盗食率和灭效分别为38.36%和85.92%。2种稻谷毒饵的盗食率差异有显著性(χ2=12.97,P<0.01),灭效差异无显著性(χ2=0.32,P>0.05)。相同浓度的敌鼠钠盐稻谷和小麦毒饵之间盗食率和灭效差异均无显著性(χ2=0.64,P>0.05;χ2=0.03,P>0.05)。结论该地使用敌鼠钠盐防制黄胸鼠仍有良好效果,不宜盲目提高药物的使用浓度,但灭鼠药物的轮换使用应予以重视。     

自制灭蟑胶饵的适口性及现场试验研究

目的：观察自制灭蟑胶饵的适口性和现场防治效果。方法参照GBT 13917．7-2009试验方法,对自制胶饵和氟虫腈颗粒剂的24 h摄食量进行记录,逐日观察死亡试虫数,并计算毒饵的24 h失水率和摄食比;现场试验在蜚蠊侵害严重的舰船上进行,观察记录施用胶饵后不同时间的密度指数变化情况。结果2种毒饵48 h死亡率均为100．0％,达到了国标A级,但2组试验中毒饵和饲料的比值分别为1．34和0．40,差异明显。现场投放胶饵2周后的密度指数下降80％,4～8周后即能将虫害控制在一个较低的水平。结论自制胶饵比颗粒剂剂型有更好的适口性,可在蜚蠊侵害严重的场所推广使用,实现对虫害的长期有效控制。