The Effects of Eating a High Fat Diet on Sensitivity of Female Rats to the Reinforcing Effects of Methamphetamine

Abstract

Eating a diet that is high in fat contributes to increased risk of chronic diseases and mortality, even in the absence of obesity. Eating a high fat diet can also impact the same brain reward pathways that are targeted by drugs of abuse. Preclinical studies have demonstrated rats eating high fat chow are more sensitive to drugs that act on dopamine systems (e.g., cocaine). However, the majority of evidence demonstrating that diet can impact drug sensitivity has investigated only male subjects, despite potential sex differences. To test the hypothesis that eating high fat chow increases sensitivity of female rats to the positive reinforcing effects of methamphetamine, female Sprague‐Dawley rats (n = 30) were fed either standard chow (17% kcal from fat), high fat chow (60% kcal from fat), or given restricted access to high fat chow (such that their body weight was maintained, without the development of obesity) for 8 weeks. Following catheter implantation, rats were trained to respond for 0.1 mg/kg methamphetamine on a Fixed Ratio 1 schedule. Although there were no differences in acquisition (n = 2–3/group), future work will examine reinforcing effectiveness of methamphetamine across dietary conditions using a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. These data expand previous research, which has predominately focused on male rats, and add to the growing literature on the effects of diet on drug sensitivity.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.