Behavioural neuroscienceUnderweight rats have enhanced dopamine release and blunted acetylcholine response in the nucleus accumbens while bingeing on sucrose
Section snippets
Subjects and surgery
Male Sprague–Dawley rats (300–325 g) were obtained from Taconic Farms (Germantown, NY, USA) and housed individually on a reversed 12-h light/dark cycle. All procedures were approved by the Princeton University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and conformed to the National Institutes of Health guidelines on the ethical use of animals. Efforts were made to minimize the use of animals and their suffering. Water was continuously available except during the microdialysis tests.
All rats
DA release is enhanced by body-weight reduction in sugar-bingeing rats
At a normal body weight, rats with 2-h access to sugar every day increased their intake during the 21 days (F(20,230)=6.02, P<0.001, Fig. 1), and by day 21 they consumed significantly more than the control group that had access only on days 1 and 21 (t(16)=4.84, P<0.001; 16.2±1.5 kcal vs. 3.9±1 kcal, respectively).
Basal DA levels were as follows: 2-h daily sugar group at normal body weight (day 21)=0.75±0.18 fmol; 2-h daily sugar group at reduced body weight (day 28)=0.88±0.35 fmol; 2-h sugar
Sugar-induced DA release is enhanced in bingeing rats at a low body weight
The findings suggest that animals that binge eat a sugar solution, and then lose weight, show a greater percent increase in DA release in the NAc than at normal body weight, and more than non-bingeing animals at a low weight. In a prior study, when underweight rats were fed ordinary chow or given systemic amphetamine or morphine, enhanced DA release was not observed; however, when amphetamine was administered directly into the NAc, it did release significantly more DA, suggesting that vesicular
Conclusion
As reviewed elsewhere, it has been previously shown that sugar bingeing results in behaviors and neurochemical changes that are similar to those observed with drugs of abuse (Avena et al., 2008). The present findings suggest that in rats with a history of binge eating, access to a palatable food (sucrose) at a low body weight is associated with a simultaneous increase in DA and attenuated ACh release in the NAc. This may make the effect of sugar more like a substance of abuse. Binge eating on
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by MH-65024 (to B. T. Walsh at NY Psychiatric Inst./Columbia Univ. and B.G.H. et al.), DA-10608 (to B.G.H.) and DA-16458 and DK-79793 (fellowships to N.M.A.). We thank Miriam Bocarsly and Jacqueline Sullivan for their assistance preparing the manuscript. The data presented here have been discussed in a review paper (Avena, 2007).
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