Ontogeny of drinking behavior of preweanling rats with lateral preoptic damage.
Male (N = 9) and female (N = 7) infant albino rats sustained bilateral lateral preoptic area (LPO) destruction on the tenth day of life. During development and as adults, these brain-damaged rats were subjected to repeated testing of drinking behaviors in response to cellular and extracellular dehydration. Immediately following LPO destruction the pups ceased suckling and most rats required tube-feeding to maintain life; however, all pups were maintaining body weight through voluntary suckling and/or feeding-drinking by 20-21 days of age. Daily water intakes were elevated from 30-42 days of age, following which intakes decreased to control vonse to water deprivation, polyethylene glycol injection and food deprivation treatments. These results are consistent with the suggestion that the LPO contains osmoreceptors for drinking behavior, and the present results suggest that such osmoreceptors, may be functional by the tenth day of life for rats.
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D003681:Dehydration / Q000503:physiopathology; D004327:Drinking Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006982:Hypertonic Solutions; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000494:pharmacology; D011301:Preoptic Area / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D014868:Water Deprivation; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance
D006982:Hypertonic Solutions; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols