title: Estrogenic suppression of binge-like eating elicited by cyclic food restriction and frustrative-nonreward stress in female rats.
abstract: Because binge eating and emotional eating vary through the menstrual cycle in human females, we investigated cyclic changes in binge-like eating in female rats and their control by estrogens. Binge-like eating was elicited by three cycles of 4 days of food restriction and 4 days of free feeding followed by a single frustrative nonreward-stress episode (15 min visual and olfactory exposure to a familiar palatable food) immediately before presentation of the palatable food. Intact rats showed binge-like eating during the diestrous and proestrous phases of the ovarian cycle, but not during the estrous (periovulatory) phase. Ovariectomized (OVX) rats not treated with estradiol (E2) displayed binge-like eating, whereas E2-treated OVX rats did not. The procedure did not increase signs of anxiety in an open-field test. OVX rats not treated with E2 that were subjected to food restriction and sacrificed immediately after frustrative nonreward had increased numbers of cells expressing phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus (PVN), and dorsal and ventral bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BNST) compared with nonrestricted or E2-treated rats. These data suggest that this female rat model is appropriate for mechanistic studies of some aspects of menstrual-cycle effects on emotional and binge eating in human females, that anxiety is not a sufficient cause of binge-like eating, and that the PVN, CeA, and BNST may contribute to information processing underlying binge-like eating.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Pharmacology Unit, University of Camerino, 62032, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Vittoria
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8044-1206
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Micioni Di Bonaventura
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Physiology and Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, 8057, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Adele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, 64100, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariangela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry (Retired), Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, 10065.
authors.forename: Nori
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Geary
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Physiology and Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, 8057, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lori
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2599-6855
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Asarian
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Pharmacology Unit, University of Camerino, 62032, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6180-828X
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cifani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004967:Estrogens / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005508:Food Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens
keywords: binge eating; binge-eating disorder; bulimia nervosa; emotional eating; estradiol; menstrual cycle; ovarian cycle; pERK; stress