Changes in body composition and efficiency of food utilization for growth in young adult female rats before, during and after a period of food restriction.

Changes in body composition were studied in three groups of young adult female rats; the treatments were (1) ad libitum food intake to obtain normal growth, (2) restricted food intake to cause body weight loss, and (3) restricted followed by ad libitum food intake to obtain recovery of lost body weight. In each of the three groups of rats the percentage body water was linearly and negatively correlated with the percentage body fat, the weight of body water was linearly and positively correlated with the weight of body protein, and the ratio of the weight of body protein to water was relatively constant at 1:3.20 +/- 0.02 (mean +/- standard error). The percentage body water in the fat-free body was linearly and negatively correlated with fat-free body weight during normal growth between 109 and 334 g body weight but positively correlated during body weight loss and recovery. During recovery of body weight rats laid down more fat and less protein than during normal growth through the same body weight range and the percentage of digestible energy retained as body tissue was increased.     

Sex differences in food hoarding behaviour of Long Evans rats

Food hoarding was examined in male and female Long Evans rats. During a three-week period the animals were regularly submitted to the testing procedures, with food pellets in the home cage being either unrestricted (first week), or restricted (second and third week). When food pellets were present ad libitum, the hoarding scores were low, lower in females than in males. When food deprivation was imposed (second week), the animals responded by hoarding more pellets. This increase was more pronounced in males than in females. During the third week the hoarding scores became more or less stable, with males hoarding significantly more pellets than females.     

Variations in hoarding behavior following regional hippocampal lesions in rats

Instinctual behaviors of feeding (food intake) and hoarding (HS) so also the body weight and estrus cycles (EI) were studied before and after discrete bilateral electrolytic lesions of dorsal hippocampus in female rats. Following the lesions, there was significant increase in food intake, body weight, hoarding score and disruption of 4-5 days estrus cycles with EI of more than one, as compared to the control (prelesioned) period and the sham operated rats. Lesions of ventral hippocampus in the earlier study (Indian J exp Biol, 26 (1988) 53) had shown a significant decrease in hoarding thus suggesting a differential role of the hippocampus probably mediated through the amygdala and/or hypothalamus both of which either alone or together exert a more direct and pivotal control in the feeding and hoarding behaviour.     

Renal excretion and saline intake during post-stress immobilization period in rats

An experiment in which the rats access either to 0.5% or 1.5% saline was designed in order to further characterise the relationship between sodium intake and renal excretion after acute immobilization stress. A saline solution for 3 days was provided to the rats previous to the experimental day. On that day, after finishing acute immobilization stress, all variables under observation were measured every 6 h for 24 h. These periods were denominated as follows: T1 (12.00 to 18.00 h), T2 (18.00 to 24.00 h), T3 (24.00 to 06.00 h) and T4 (06.00 to 12.00 h). Acute immobilization stress reduced sodium renal excretion in both T1 and T2. Sodium intake in acute immobilization stress rats was lower than in control rats during all observed periods, while the urine volume was only reduced in the stressed animals in T1. These results were similar in both saline solution concentrations. A good correlation was observed between sodium intake and sodium excretion in control rats having access to either 0.5% or 1.5% saline as well as in stressed rats having access to 0.5% saline, this correlation was not observed in stressed rats with 1.5% saline. This suggests that stress impaired the renal capability of rats to handle high sodium but not a slight sodium overload. The inability of the kidney to excrete sodium may be critical to reduce sodium intake after acute immobilization stress.     

Placental blood flow in rats fed alcohol before and during gestation

Female Sprague-Dawley rats were either given 20% alcohol in drinking water and solid diet $\text{ad libitum}$ (alcohol group) or were pair-fed to the alcohol group (pair-fed group) or were given water and solid diet $\text{ad libitum (ad libitum}$ group) for four weeks. They were then mated and the alcohol group was changed to 30% alcohol in water. On day 20 of gestation each rat was injected with ⁵⁷Co-labeled microspheres into the left ventricle and radioactivity was determined in the placentas and kidneys. Cardiac output and blood flow to the placentas and kidneys was calculated. Fetuses and placentas were weighed, and the osmolality of the maternal plasma and water content of the muscle was determined. Cardiac output and blood flow to the kidneys did not differ among the three groups. Blood flow to the placenta, whether expressed as m1/min/g placenta or m1/min/placenta, or as % of cardiac output was significantly reduced in the alcohol group compared with the pair-fed and $\text{ad libitum}$ groups, which did not differ from one another. Fetuses were significantly lighter and placentas were significantly heavier in the alcohol group than in the other two groups. Plasma osmolality was increased and muscle water was decreased about 7% in the alcohol group, indicating a moderate degree of dehydration. It is concluded that chronic alcohol consumption leads to a redistribution of blood, with less blood supplying the placentas. This may contribute to the growth retardation seen in fetal alcohol syndrome.     

Chronic stress and forming of psychoemotional state during prepubertal period in rats

Immediate and long-lasting effects of chronic stress during prepubertal period (21-32 postnatal days) on anxiety- and depression-related behavior were studied in Wistar and ISIAH (inherited stress-induced arterial hypertension) rats. Significant interstrain differences were found. Both juvenile and adult ISIAH rats were less anxious in the elevated plus-maze and less depressed in the forced swimming test. Immediate effects of the prepubertal stress were similar in both rat strains and depended on the type of stimulation. Long-lasting effects were genotype-dependent. Chronic prepubertal handling exerted an anxiolytic effect in young ISIAH and Wistar rats and adult Wistar rats. Immediate anxiogenic effect of prepubertal unpredictable stress was preserved only in adult ISIAH rats. Depression-related behavior was intensified by the unpredictable stress in young animals, whereas the long-lasting effect was observed only in adult hypertensive rats.     

Feeding and hoarding behaviour of the Eurasian red squirrelSciurus vulgaris during autumn in Hokkaido, Japan

The feeding habits and hoarding behaviour of the Eurasian red squirrelSciurus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 were examined during autumn in Nopporo Forest Park (43°20’N, 141°30’E), in western Hokkaido, Japan. The diet consisted of 32 plant species. Twelve species were both eaten and hoarded (the two most common of which wereAbies sachalinensis andPinus koraiensis), and 20 species were eaten but not hoarded. The distance from where a food item was found to the hoarding spot averaged 50 m and differed significantly according to food type. WalnutsJuglans regia were transported farthest, and chestnutsCastanea crenata to the second farthest from the site of origin. Most food was hoarded beneath the ground surface (95%), but some were hoarded in forks of trees and in small tree holes. Squirrels selected food items of high energy content for hoarding, in preparation for winter and the breeding season.     

Pattern of growth regulating substances in the leaves of vernalized sugar-beet during flowering period

The changes in the levels of growth regulating substances using the wheat coleoptile straight growth test were determined in the leaves of vernalized (flowering) and non-vernalized (non-flowering) plants of sugar-beet, cv. Poly-AG-Poland at two stages; the end of vernalization treatment (210 days from planting) and full-flowering stage. IAA was detected only in the extracts of the leaves of non-vernalized plants after210 days from planting. No inhibitory activity was detected, except in the case of the concentrated extract of the leaves of non-vernalized plants. This growth promoting zone was found at R_f 0.5–0.8 in the leaves of flowering plants after cold treatment and at flowering time. This zone of growth promoting action was suggested to have a major role in the flowering of sugar-beet.     

A study of some serum mineral levels before and during pregnancy and during lactation period of sheep and cattle

The purpose of this study was to determine serum Cu, Zn, Mn, K, and Mg levels before and during pregnancy and during the lactation period of sheep and cattle and to determine the relationships between periods. For this purpose, blood samples of 14 healthy, pregnant Brown Swiss cows fed under normal condition and 36 Karakaş (İvesi × Akkaraman) sheep were used. Blood samples were analyzed using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. There were significant differences between before pregnancy and during pregnancy, and during pregnancy and the lactation period for serum Zn concentration; also before pregnancy and during pregnancy, and before pregnancy and the lactation period for serum K concentration in cows (p<0.05). There were significant differences between before pregnancy and the lactation period for serum Cu concentration, and before pregnancy and during pregnancy for serum K concentration; also pregnancy and the lactation period for serum Mg concentration in sheep (p<0.05).     

Assessing burrowing, nest construction, and hoarding in mice

Deterioration in the ability to perform "Activities of daily living" (ADL) is an early sign of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Preclinical behavioural screening of possible treatments for AD currently largely focuses on cognitive testing, which frequently demands expensive equipment and lots of experimenter time. However, human episodic memory (the most severely affected aspect of memory in AD) is different to rodent memory, which seems to be largely non-episodic. Therefore the present ways of screening for new AD treatments for AD in rodents are intrinsically unlikely to succeed. A new approach to preclinical screening would be to characterise the ADL of mice. Fortuitously, several such assays have recently been developed at Oxford, and here the three most sensitive and well-characterised are presented. Burrowing was first developed in Oxford. It evolved from a need to develop a mouse hoarding paradigm. Most published rodent hoarding paradigms required a distant food source to be linked to the home cage by a connecting passage. This would involve modifying the home cage as well as making a mouse-proof connecting passage and food source. So it was considered whether it would be possible to put the food source inside the cage. It was found that if a container was placed on the floor it was emptied by the next morning., The food pellets were, however, simply deposited in a heap at the container entrance, rather than placed in a discrete place away from the container, as might be expected if the mice were truly hoarding them. Close inspection showed that the mice were performing digging ("burrowing") movements, not carrying the pellets in their mouths to a selected place as they would if truly hoarding them. Food pellets are not an essential substrate for burrowing; mice will empty tubes filled with sand, gravel, even soiled bedding from their own cage. Moreover, they will empty a full tube even if an empty one is placed next to it. Several nesting protocols exist in the literature. The present Oxford one simplifies the procedure and has a well-defined scoring system for nest quality. A hoarding paradigm was later developed in which the mice, rather than hoarding back to the real home cage, were adapted to living in the "home base" of a hoarding apparatus. This home base was connected to a tube made of wire mesh, the distal end of which contained the food source. This arrangement proved to yield good hoarding behaviour, as long as the mice were adapted to living in the "home base" during the day and only allowed to enter the hoarding tube at night.     

Breathing pattern and CO2 response in newborn rats before and during anesthesia

We have studied the breathing pattern (minute ventilation VE, tidal volume VT, and respiratory rate f) in newborn rats before and during barbiturate (20-30 mg/kg ip) or ketamine anesthesia (40-80 mg/kg ip). Animals were intact and prone in a flow plethysmograph in thermoneutral conditions. Before anesthesia, CO2 breathing (5 min in 5% and 5 min in 10% CO2 in O2) resulted in a substantial increase in VE (169 and 208%, respectively), which was maintained throughout the entire CO2 breathing period. This indicates that, despite the extremely large VE per kilogram at rest, in these small animals there is still a large reserve for a sustained increase in VE. During barbiturate, the resting VE dropped to 45% of control, due to a reduction in VT (83%) and f (59%). This latter result was due to a prolongation of the expiratory time (214%) with no significant changes in inspiratory time. CO2 response was also much depressed, to approximately 63% of the control. The late portion of the expiratory flow-volume curves, the slope of which represents the expiratory time constant of the system, was similar before and during anesthesia in approximately 50% of the animals, whereas it increased during anesthesia in the remaining animals. Although compliance of the respiratory system was generally unaltered, the increased impedance during anesthesia probably reflected an increased resistance. Qualitatively similar results were obtained during ketamine anesthesia. Therefore, as observed in adult mammals, anesthesia in newborn rats has a marked depressant effect on resting breathing pattern and CO2 response, occasionally accompanied by an increase in the expiratory impedance of the respiratory system.