Partial lipectomy, but not pvn lesions, increases food hoarding by
siberian hamsters1.
Wood, Andrea D., and Timothy J. Bartness.
Departments of Psychology and of Biology, Neuropsychology and
Behavioral Neuroscience Program and Neurobiology Program5, Georgia
State University, Atlanta, GA 30303
APStracts 3:0321R, 1996.
We tested the inverse relationship between body fat and food hoarding
in Siberian hamsters, by decreasing or increasing body fat through
partial surgical lipectomy (LIPX) or by making obesity-inducing
lesions of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVNx),
respectively. We asked three questions: 1) Is food hoarding increased
following body fat loss due to LIPX?, 2) Is food hoarding decreased
following PVNx?, and 3) Does PVNx affect the hoarding response to
LIPX? Hamsters housed in a simulated burrow system increased food
hoarding after LIPX followed by a decrease to pre-LIPX levels as body
fat was partially compensated through an increase in the mass of
their unoperated fat pads. PVNx hamsters had increased body mass and
food intake, but did not have decreased food hoarding nor was food
hoarding increased by LIPX in PVNx hamsters. The partial body fat
compensation by LIPX + PVNx hamsters suggests the damaged PVN did not
cause a general failure to sense energy deficits, but affected the
ability to integrate internal and external energy stores.
Received 21 February 1996; accepted in final form 16 August 1996.
APS Manuscript Number R102-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 19 September 1996