ABSTRACT
We used c-Fos immunoreactivity to estimate neuronal activation in hypothalamic feeding-regulatory areas of 3-month-old rats fed control or oil-enriched diets (soy or fish) since weaning. While no diet effect was observed in c-Fos immunoreactivity of 24-h fasted animals, the acute response to refeeding was modified by both hyperlipidic diets but with different patterns. Upon refeeding, control-diet rats had significantly increased c-Fos immunoreactivity only in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVH, 142%). In soy-diet rats, refeeding with the soy diet increased c-Fos immunoreactivity in dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DMH, 271%) and lateral hypothalamic area (LH, 303%). Refeeding fish-diet rats with the fish diet increased c-Fos immunoreactivity in PVH (161%), DMH (177%), VMH (81%), and ARC (127%). Compared to the fish-diet, c-Fos immunoreactivity was increased in LH by the soy-diet while it was decreased in ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH) and arcuate hypothalamic nucleus (ARC). Based on the known roles of the activated nuclei, it is suggested that, unlike the fish-diet, the soy-diet induced a potentially obesogenic profile, with high LH and low VMH/PVH activation after refeeding.
Subject(s)
Diet , Eating/physiology , Fasting/physiology , Fish Oils , Hypothalamus/physiology , Neurons/physiology , Soybean Oil , Animals , Body Weight , Energy Intake , Fatty Acids/analysis , Fish Oils/chemistry , Hypothalamus/chemistry , Hypothalamus/cytology , Immunohistochemistry , Male , Neurons/metabolism , Organ Specificity , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/metabolism , Random Allocation , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Soybean Oil/chemistryABSTRACT
The effects of ethanol ingestion on jejunal and ileal epithelial cells were studied in pregnant rats by measuring crypt and villus cell population, crypt cell proliferation, and crypt cell cycle time as parameters. Timed-pregnancy female rats were fed a liquid diet containing either ethanol [designated as ethanol-fed group (EFG)] or an isocaloric amount of carbohydrate [designated as pair-fed group (PFG)] from gestational day 2 up to delivery. Daily diet ingestion, body weight, nitrogen balance, and nitrogen digestibility were assessed during the gestational period. Crypt and villus cell population, crypt cell proliferation, and crypt cell cycle time were measured in the maternal small intestine at the time animals were killed, just after delivery. Ethanol consumption resulted in ileal hypoplasia of the crypt and villus, but only the villus showed hypoplasia in the jejunum. In addition, crypt cell proliferation was markedly decreased, whereas crypt cell cycle time was longer, both in the jejunum and ileum of the EFG. Ethanol ingestion had no significant effect on body weight gain, nitrogen balance, and nitrogen digestibility. According to our expectations, the offspring from the EFG had significantly lower body weight. In conclusion, chronic ethanol ingestion during pregnancy inhibited the maternal intestinal epithelium growth, more extensively in the ileum.
