Comparison of long term feeding pattern between male and female
fischer-344 rats: the influence of estrous cycle.
Laviano, Alessandro, Michael M. Meguid, John R. Gleason, Zhong-Jin
Yang, Tad Renvyle.
Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition Laboratory, Neuroscience Program,
Department of Surgery, University Hospital, SUNY Health Science
Center, Syracuse, NY; and Statistics Program, College of Arts and
Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
APStracts 2:0256R, 1995.
We studied the effect of gender on food intake, meal number and size,
in eight 10-wk old female and seven age-matched male Fischer-344 rats
for 44 consecutive days. Although food intake (g/100 g BW) was
similar in males and females (5.42+/-0.10 g food/day/100 g BW vs.
5.13+/-0.13 g food/day/100 g BW, respectively; p=n.s.), weight gain
in males was approximately 7 times greater than in female rats
(1.49+/-0.07 g/day vs. 0.21+/-0.03 g/day, respectively;
p<0.001). During this time males had a relatively constant food
intake. They increased their meal size but decreased their meal
number. In female rats, food intake was relatively stable for the
duration of the study, despite cyclically and reciprocally
reoccurring changes in meal number and meal size, which are
synchronized with the estrous cycle. Data confirm that net food
intake is a dynamic process, and suggest that in the rat, the
homeostasis of food intake in response to external as well internal
stimuli is maintained via the modulation of meal number and size.
Received 22 June 1995; accepted in final form 30 August 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R387-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 23 September 1995.