Neuropeptide Y: Behavioral effects in the golden hamster

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is found abundantly in nervous tissues of vertebrate species including the golden hamster. Centrally-administered NPY has been reported to elicit ingestive behaviors in the rat, squirrel, pig, mouse, and chick. To assess NPY's behavioral effects in a New World rodent that does not increase food intake after deprivation, NPY was injected intracerebroventricularly (10.0-0.04 μg/5 μl) in home-caged golden hamsters with ad lib access to food, water and 5% w/v ethanol solution. Food and fluid intakes, and behavior displays were monitored after NPY injection. NPY promptly increased short-term food intake and observed feeding behaviors at 10.0, 3.3, 1.1, and 0.37 μg NPY, but there was no effect on 24 hr food intake. Water and ethanol intakes were increased only at 10.0 and 0.37 μg NPY, respectively. Resting behaviors decreased at NPY doses that increased feeding, but there were no consistent effects of NPY on any other category of behavior. Results demonstrate that NPY potently stimulates short-term food intake and decreases resting behavior in the golden hamster. The lack of compensatory food intake in deprived hamsters cannot be explained as an insensitivity to the putative orexigenic function of endogenous neuropeptide Y.