Long-term Regulation Of Body Weight Research Articles

Estradiol induced suppression of feeding in the female rat: Dependence on body weight

Ovariectomy in the adult female rat leads to a transient increase in food intake and an elevated level of body weight. Estrogen treatment blocks or reverses these changes. Currently, estrogen is seen to suppress feeding directly, but earlier findings suggest that estrogen's effect is dependent upon an elevated level of body weight. We demonstrate that 1 μg estradiol, which has suppressant effects on food intake and body weight in ovariectomized (OVX) rats, has no such effects in ovariectomized-adrenalectomized (OVX-ADX) rats, which do not gain excess weight spontaneously. However, estradiol does have a suppressant effect on these measures in OVX-ADX rats, if they are made mildly obese by dietary means. Therefore, estradiol suppresses feeding only in the face of actual or impending obesity. It probably affects the system(s) concerned with the long-term regulation of body weight; but it does not act directly on the mechanisms which mobilize or inhibit feeding.