The Effects of Eating a High Fat Diet on Methamphetamine‐Induced Conditioned Place Preference

Abstract

Eating a high fat diet can cause several negative health consequences, including dysfunction to dopamine systems. For example, eating a high fat diet enhances sensitivity of rats to methamphetamine‐induced locomotion. However, it is not known if sensitivity to the rewarding effects of methamphetamine are similarly enhanced in rats eating a high fat diet. Females are more sensitive than males to the behavioral effects of stimulants in general, and therefore might also be particularly vulnerabile to high fat diet‐induced enhanced sensitivity to stimulant drugs. To test the hypothesis that eating high fat chow enhances sensitivity of rats to the rewarding effects of methamphetamine, female Sprague‐Dawley rats were fed standard laboratory chow (17% kcal from fat) or high fat chow (60% kcal from fat) for 4 weeks prior to conditioned place preference (CPP) training, using a biased design. Rats were trained on alternating days rats with saline or methamphetamine (0.32 or 1.0 mg/kg, i.p.) and were restricted to one of two sides (wire mesh vs rod flooring) of a CPP apparatus. After 8 alternating training days, rats had free access to the entire apparatus, and time spent in the drug‐paired side versus the saline‐paired side was examined. Methamphetmaine induced a significant CPP in all rats, regardless of diet or dose of methamphetamine; however, there were no differences in magnitude of CPP between rats eating high fat chow and rats eating standard chow. Previous literature suggests that females might be more sensitive to the rewarding effects of methamphetamine, necessitating the use of smaller doses. As such, future studies will examine a wider range of doses of methamphetamine, as well as other conditioned behavior (i.e., self‐administration) and will include male subjects to study potential sex differences.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.