Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Stern, Warren C.
• Morgane, Peter J.
• Miller, Maravene
• Resnick, Oscar

Titel

Protein malnutrition in rats: Response of brain amines and behavior to foot shock stress

Ist Teil von

• Experimental neurology, 1975-04, Vol.47 (1), p.56-67

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

1975

Quelle

Access via ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The changes in regional brain levels of serotonin, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, and norepinephrine following an acute shock stress to the feet were examined in adult rats which had been fed a protein-poor diet or a normal diet during the developmental period and adulthood. Regional brain levels of the amines and 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid showed little change in normal rats following up to 90 min of shock, whereas depletions of up to 50% occurred in chronically protein malnourished rats. These neurochemical changes in the chronically malnourished rats were pronounced in the diencephalon and in the midbrain-pons-medulla brain regions. Normal rats which were switched in adulthood to the low protein diet showed minimal decreases in brain amine and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid levels following foot shock. This suggests that the effects observed in the chronically malnourished rats reflect a developmental interaction and were not due to the diet being administered at the time of testing. Behavioral measures of reactivity to foot shock, however, did not reveal marked diet related effects. Possible reasons for the differences in the behavioral vs. central neurochemical responses to foot shock are discussed. The results regarding the amine and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid levels demonstrate that the brains of chronically protein malnourished rats do not compensate to the same extent as the brains of normal rats (or normal rats switched to a low protein diet at adulthood) for the effects of an acute stress.