title: Early life stress is associated with anxiety, increased stress responsivity and preference for "comfort foods" in adult female rats.
abstract: Chronic stress increases anxiety and encourages intake of palatable foods as "comfort foods". This effect seems to be mediated by altered function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. In the current study, litters of Wistar rats were subjected to limited access to nesting material (Early-Life Stress group - ELS) or standard care (Control group) from postnatal day 2 to 9. In adult life, anxiety was assessed using the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT), and acute stress responsivity by measurement of plasma corticosterone and ACTH levels. Preference for palatable foods was monitored by a computerized system (BioDAQ, Research Diets(®)) in rats receiving only regular chow or given the choice of regular and palatable diet for 30 days. ELS-augmented adulthood anxiety in the NSFT (increased latency to eat in a new environment; decreased chow intake upon return to the home cage) and increased corticosterone (but not ACTH) secretion in response to stress. Despite being lighter and consuming less rat chow, ELS animals ate more palatable foods during chronic exposure compared with controls. During preference testing, controls receiving long-term access to palatable diet exhibited reduced preference for the diet relative to controls exposed to regular chow only, whereas ELS rats demonstrated no such reduction in preference after prolonged palatable diet exposure. The increased preference for palatable foods showed by ELS animals may result from a habit of using this type of food to ameliorate anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós Graduaçño em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. tanianutricionista@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: Tania Diniz
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalle Molle
authors.forename: Daniela Pereira
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Laureano
authors.forename: André Krumel
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Portella
authors.forename: Isabel Cristina Ribas
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Werlang
authors.forename: Carla da Silva
authors.initials: Cda S
authors.lastname: Benetti
authors.forename: Cristie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Noschang
authors.forename: Patrícia Pelufo
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Silveira
mesh_terms: D050153:Abdominal Fat / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000097:blood; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; D003345:Corticosterone