scholarly journals Neural and hormonal control of food hoarding

2011 ◽  
Vol 301 (3) ◽  
pp. R641-R655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Bartness ◽  
E. Keen-Rhinehart ◽  
M. J. Dailey ◽  
B. J. Teubner

Many animals hoard food, including humans, but despite its pervasiveness, little is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying this appetitive behavior. We summarize studies of food hoarding in humans and rodents with an emphasis on mechanistic laboratory studies of species where this behavior importantly impacts their energy balance (hamsters), but include laboratory rat studies although their wild counterparts do not hoard food. The photoperiod and cold can affect food hoarding, but food availability is the most significant environmental factor affecting food hoarding. Food-deprived/restricted hamsters and humans exhibit large increases in food hoarding compared with their fed counterparts, both doing so without overeating. Some of the peripheral and central peptides involved in food intake also affect food hoarding, although many have not been tested. Ad libitum-fed hamsters given systemic injections of ghrelin, the peripheral orexigenic hormone that increases with fasting, mimics food deprivation-induced increases in food hoarding. Neuropeptide Y or agouti-related protein, brain peptides stimulated by ghrelin, given centrally to ad libitum-fed hamsters, duplicates the early and prolonged postfood deprivation increases in food hoarding, whereas central melanocortin receptor agonism tends to inhibit food deprivation and ghrelin stimulation of hoarding. Central or peripheral leptin injection or peripheral cholecystokinin-33, known satiety peptides, inhibit food hoarding. Food hoarding markedly increases with pregnancy and lactation. Because fasted and/or obese humans hoard more food in general, and more high-density/high-fat foods specifically, than nonfasted and/or nonobese humans, understanding the mechanisms underlying food hoarding could provide another target for behavioral/pharmacological approaches to curb obesity.

1997 ◽  
Vol 272 (1) ◽  
pp. R118-R125 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Bartness

Food hoarding by male Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus sungorus) is increased only when body mass (fat) is decreased. Pregnancy and lactation result in marked decreases in lipid reserves (approximately 50%) in female Siberian hamsters. Therefore, the present experiments addressed the following questions: 1) Is food hoarding increased after food deprivation in female Siberian hamsters? and 2) How do food hoarding and food intake change during pregnancy, lactation, and their combination? During measurements in a simulated burrow system food hoarding increased after a 32-h fast (approximately 2- to 3-fold) to a level similar to that seen previously in males and was markedly increased during pregnancy (approximately 12- to 18-fold, lactation, and concurrent pregnancy and lactation (approximately 10- to 25-fold for each of the latter 2 conditions). Postfast food intake was not different from prefast baseline measures. Food intake was increased only during the last few days of pregnancy and was elevated throughout lactation. These impressive increases in the level of food hoarding during pregnancy, lactation and their combination suggest that food hoarding may play an important role in supplying easily accessible energy to subserve these reproductive conditions.


1994 ◽  
Vol 266 (4) ◽  
pp. R1111-R1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Bartness ◽  
M. R. Clein

Syrian hamsters do not increase their food intake following several metabolic challenges, including food deprivation and blockade of metabolic fuel utilization, in contrast to the response of other small rodents to these challenges. Perhaps hamsters respond to such challenges differently, for example by altering hoarding. In the present experiments, we have begun to question the role of food hoarding in the total energy balance of Siberian hamsters. Therefore, we developed a simulated burrow system, where food was available outside the burrow for consumption and/or hoarding during a 15-h period surrounding the 8-h dark portion of the photocycle. Food hoarding, but not food intake, increased dramatically after 32- and 56-h fasts and was greater following the longer fast. Food-restricted weight-reduced hamsters (80% of ad libitum-fed controls) were refed and given the opportunity to hoard. Initially, when body weights were low, food hoarding was maximal and then decreased gradually to control levels as body weights reached those of the ad libitum-fed controls. Food intake was not affected. Neither hoarding nor food intake was affected by treatment with long-acting protamine zinc insulin, given to enhance the storage of metabolic fuels, at any dose tested. Finally, neither food intake nor hoarding was affected by treatment with the glucose utilization blocker 2-deoxy-D-glucose, the fatty acid utilization blocker methyl palmoxirate, or a combination of the two treatments, all at doses that stimulate food intake in laboratory rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


2002 ◽  
Vol 283 (5) ◽  
pp. R1020-R1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Swart ◽  
J. W. Jahng ◽  
J. M. Overton ◽  
T. A. Houpt

Food deprivation (FD) increases hypothalamic neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AGRP) mRNA levels and decreases proopiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA levels; refeeding restores these levels. We determined the time course of changes in hypothalamic NPY, AGRP, and POMC mRNA levels on refeeding after 24 h FD in C57BL mice by in situ hybridization. After 24 h deprivation, mice were refed with either chow or a palatable mash containing no calories or were injected with murine leptin (100 μg) without food. Mice were perfused 2 or 6 h after treatment. Food deprivation increased hypothalamic NPY mRNA (108 ± 6%) and AGRP mRNA (78 ± 7%) and decreased hypothalamic POMC mRNA (−15 ± 1%). Refeeding for 6 h, but not 2 h, was sufficient to reduce (but not restore) NPY mRNA, did not affect AGRP mRNA, and restored POMC mRNA levels to ad libitum control levels. Intake of the noncaloric mash had no effect on mRNA levels, and leptin administration after deprivation (at a dose sufficient to reduce refeeding in FD mice) was not sufficient to affect mRNA levels. These results suggest that gradual postabsorptive events subsequent to refeeding are required for the restoration of peptide mRNA to baseline levels after food deprivation in mice.


1982 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kowalski ◽  
G. H. Parker ◽  
M. A. Persinger

Mice that had been given either tap water or 2 ppm lead in their drinking water and either severely food deprived (3 days before testing) or allowed food ad libitum demonstrated significant interactions of lead treatment by day by food condition and lead by block. Although not statistically significant, the food deprived-lead treated mice displayed more errors and longer latencies than the ad libitum-water controls. The food deprived-water controls and ad libitum-lead-treated mice displayed intermediate values. The importance of using multivariate statistical techniques that can evaluate dynamic repeated behavioral measurements is emphasized.


1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 265-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching-Liang Hsieh ◽  
Tsai-Chung Li ◽  
Chien-Yu Lin ◽  
Nou-Ying Tang ◽  
Qwang-Yuen Chang ◽  
...  

Although acupuncture has traditionally used the acupoints formula to treat diseases, the physiological mechanisms involved and the effectiveness of therapy remain unclear. This study investigated the physiological mechanism(s) and response to acupuncture stimulation using the acupoints formula. Scalp-recorded potentials P300 were evoked by auditory stimulation of non-target and target in 13 normal adult volunteers. Latencies and amplitudes were measured. Three assessments were performed in each subject over a period of at least one week. Each assessment was divided into a control period with no acupuncture stimulation, followed by an acupuncture period and then a post-acupuncture period. Acupuncture needles were inserted into the body as follows: 1) non-acupoint: acupuncture needles were inserted 2 cm lateral to both Zusanli acupoints; 2) acupoint: acupuncture needles were inserted into both Zusanli acupoints; 3) acupoints formula: acupuncture needles were inserted into both Zusanli and Shousanli acupoints. Our results showed that both acupoint and acupoints formula assessments resulted in a significant decrease of P300 amplitudes during the acupuncture and post-acupuncture periods. However, there was significant difference in P300 amplitudes in the non-acupoint assessment during these periods. P300 changes in latencies and amplitudes were not significantly different between the acupoint assessment and the acupoints formula assessment. We concluded that acupuncture stimulation of both Zusanli acupoints resulted in a decrease of P300 amplitudes, suggesting the involvement of the cerebral cortex in sensory interaction when simultaneous sensations of the two types are received. No similar changes were observed in the non-acupoint assessment, which have been suggested to be related to so-called acupoint specificity. Results obtained using the acupoints formula were not significantly different from those using acupoints alone. These findings suggested that neuropsychological effects from stimulation of Zusanli acupoints and Shousanli acupoints are different.


1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Blundell ◽  
L. J. Herberg

The diencephalic area most sensitive to microinjections of noradrenaline lay outside the area of the lateral hypothalamus in which feeding can be produced by electrical stimulation. Injection of either area, including injections that caused increased feeding, failed to have any effect on hoarding activity. Since hoarding can be elicited both by food deprivation and by electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus, these findings indicate biochemical, anatomical and motivational differences between the central feeding mechanism sensitive to adrenergic stimulation, and that responding to electrical stimulation or nutritional depletion. The former mechanism may be disinhibitory; the latter, excitatory.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document