The food-hoarding threshold is not raised by acute intraventricular NPY in male rats

Abstract

We studied the influence of acute intracerebroventricular (ICV) NPY on the relation existing in the rat between food-hoarding behavior and the body weight of the animals. Six male rats were trained to feed every day from 1000 to 1200 h. Then, their threshold for the onset of food hoarding was measured from the intercept of the regression line relating the food hoarded during meal time ( Y axis) to the body weight ( X axis). Thirty minutes before the hoarding session, the rats were injected ICV with either 4 μg of NPY or saline control. The mean threshold for food hoarding was not modified after NPY. Mean food intake during the hoarding sessions was also unchanged. These results suggest that intracerebral NPY at 4 μg did not acutely alter the set-point for body weight regulation.