Delayed hyperphagia and increased body length after hypothalamic knife cuts in weanling rats.
Four-week-old female rats received parasagittal hypothalamic knife cuts. Polydipsia began right surgery, but hyperphagia, obesity, and excessive nose-anal length did not begin until after the rats were 7-8 wk. old. The delayed onset appears to await some maturational event that is required for the expression of hypothalamic obesity. It appears likely that puberty is the critical maturational event.
D000818:Animals; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors