Medium chain triglyceride feeding to normal and diabetic rats.

Abstract

Medium Chain Triglyceride Feeding to Normal and Diabetic Rats February 1982 Neil6 Kay Edens, B.A. University of Washington M.S., University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Mark I. Friedman Medium chain triglyceride (MCT) feeding to normal male rats has been shown to cause marked alterations in circulating levels of metabolic fuels. Despite this, MCT feeding has not been shown to reliably alter food intake in normal rats. It seemed possible that MCT feeding might affect food intake in diabetic rats, because diabetics have been shown to respond selectively to alterations of the fat content of their diet. To investigate this possibility, normal and diabetic rats were fed purified diets containing either corn oil (a long chain triglyceride (LCT)) or MCT as the fat component of the diet. After food intake had stabilized, blood was sampled for assay of plasma metabolites, and the concentration of fat in the diet was increased. This procedure was repeated after food intake had stabilized on the higher,