Diabetes 52:2684-2688, 2003 © 2003 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc. Learned Meal Initiation Attenuates the Anorexic Effects of the Melanocortin Agonist MTIIFrom the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio The central melanocortin system is critically involved in the control of food intake and body weight. Administration of melanocortin agonists reduces food intake and adiposity, and the central melanocortin system is demonstrated to mediate the anorexic effects of both leptin and insulin. An important unanswered question has been whether melanocortin agonists would also reduce food intake that is driven by factors other than homeostatic mechanisms (e.g., conditioned eating). In the first experiment, we identified that long-term maintenance on a meal-feeding schedule attenuated rats sensitivity to central administration of the melanocortin agonist MTII. The results from a second experiment demonstrate that the attenuation of the MTII-induced anorexia was due to learned schedules of food intake rather than food deprivation per se. Results from the final experiment suggest that this attenuation of MTII-induced anorexia may be independent of the decreased sensitivity caused by a high-fat diet. These results support the hypothesis that meal-feeding schedules can lead to anticipatory physiological responses that attenuate the anorexic effects of exogenous melanocortin agonists.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Stephen C. Benoit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, P.O. Box 670559, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0559. E-mail: stephen.benoit{at}uc.edu
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