Lesion of the central nucleus of amygdala promotes fat gain without
preventing the effect of exercise on energy balance.
Bovetto, Sylvie, and Denis Richard.
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University,
Qu[acute]ebec, Canada
APStracts 2:0077R, 1995.
Male Wistar rats with intact or lesioned central nucleus of amygdala
(CeA) were kept at rest or subjected to a treadmill running program
for 21 consecutive days. Food intake and body weight were monitored
throughout the exercise-training program. At the end of the program,
rats were killed and their carcass processed for analysis of the
contents in energy, fat and protein. Exercise and CeA lesions induced
opposite effect on energy balance; exercise delayed gains in body
energy and fat whereas CeA lesions promoted them. Total energy intake
was lower in exercised rats than in sedentary ones over the 12 and 24
hours which followed exercise. Food intake was higher in lesioned
rats than in intact animals over the second half of the 12 hour
-period that followed exercise. There was no interaction effect of
exercise and CeA lesions on energy balance and intake and on body
composition. Plasma levels of adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) and
corticosterone were higher in exercised rats than in sedentary ones,
but there was no difference between lesioned and intact rats. This
study, as well as confirming the effect of exercise on energy
balance, indicates that CeA lesions may promote energy deposition in
rats. Above all, the present results provide evidence that CeA does
not represent a necessary neuroanatomical structure in the effect of
exercise on energy balance.
Received 5 October 1994; accepted in final form 8 March 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R580-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 6 April 1995.