Two novel paradigms for the simultaneous assessment of conditioned taste aversion and food intake effects of anorexic agents.
The conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is routinely used to assess the aversive consequences of anorexic agents, including potential pharmacological therapies for obesity. In a typical CTA paradigm, rats briefly sampling a novel tastant (e.g., saccharin) are acutely administered with toxin (e.g., lithium chloride, LiCl). After as few as one taste-toxin pairing, rats will reliably avoid the novel tastant. This paradigm is frequently used for the assessment of possible aversive consequences of drugs that are candidates for pharmacological therapies. The degree to which the drug supports development of a CTA is interpreted as an index of its aversive properties. Difficulties with previous work include the inability to assess affects on food intake and CTA simultaneously, particularly during chronic drug administration. We report here two novel CTA paradigms for the assessment of appetitive and aversive consequences of anorexic agents, simultaneously. In the first experiment, animals receive an intraoral infusion of a novel and highly palatable tastant immediately prior to administration of increasing doses of LiCl. In the second experiment, rats were implanted intraperitoneally with osmotic minipumps that chronically delivered a low dose of LiCl for 7 days. LiCl did not affect short or long term food intake in either experiment. However, LiCl did support the development of a CTA in both paradigms. These results suggest that both the appetitive and aversive consequences of anorexic agents can be assessed simultaneously during either acute or chronic drug administration.
Benoit
Stephen C
SC
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, P.O. Box 670559, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA. benoits@email.uc.edu
Air
Ellen L
EL
Wilmer
Kihmberly
K
Messerschmidt
Patrick
P
Hodge
Karen M B
KM
Jones
Melissa B
MB
Eckstein
Dawn M M
DM
McOsker
Charles C
CC
Seeley
Randy J
RJ
Woods
Stephen C
SC
Sheldon
Russell J
RJ
D000818:Animals; D001066:Appetite / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001067:Appetite Depressants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001069:Appetite Regulation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D032763:Behavior Control / Q000379:methods; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004435:Eating / Q000187:drug effects; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D018021:Lithium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013649:Taste
D001067:Appetite Depressants; D018021:Lithium Chloride