Initial effects of amino acid imbalance in the rat

Rapid fall in plasma threonine followed by increased intermeal interval in response to first ingestion of a threonine-devoid diet in rats

In most animals, ingestion of a diet lacking an essential amino acid (EAA) gives rise to anorexia within a few hours. The first signal in this feeding response may be the fall in plasma levels of the limiting EAA. In the present study, we measured plasma amino acid levels and food intake after the first exposure to either a threonine-devoid (THR-DEV) or corrected (COR) diet in 16 rats bearing a chronic jugular catheter for blood sampling. Food intake was reduced 165 min (p<0.05) after presentation of the THR-DEV diet. Analysis of the feeding pattern showed that intake was reduced via a four-fold lengthening of the second inter-meal interval. Plasma threonine levels started to fall between 30 and 60 min after onset of the meal (p<0.05). These results, observed in the same rats, lend further support for an early modification of the plasma amino acid pattern in relation to the decrease in feeding of a diet that is EAA deficient.

The rejection of a diet which has been associated with a single administration of an histidine-free amino acid mixture

1. A protein-free diet, to which an odour had been added, was offered to rats immediately after giving a gastric load of an histidine-free, but otherwise balanced, amino acid mixture. The same diet with a different odour was offered to the rats on another day, after administration of a control load of saline or a balanced amino acid mixture. After access to stock diet for 6 h of 1 d, the rats were offered two samples of protein-free diet, each with one of the two odours.

2. The rate of consumption of odorized protein-free diet was depressed 2–4 h after administration of the histidine-free load. In the later preference test, the dietary sample with odour which had been offered after the deficient load was rejected in favour of the sample with the odour which had been offered after the control load.

3. Rejection of the deficiency-paired odour in the final preference test did not occur when the histidine-free load had been given 2 h before the rats were first offered odorized diet. Also, there was in these instances no depression of rate of food consumption 2–4 h after loading. This indicated that aversive reactions to the odour were established by association of the odour with some effect of the histidine-free load which had occurred within 2 h of its administration, and that the early depression of intake and the much later rejection during choice were both expressions of these acquired reactions.

4. This rapid conditioning of selective rejection did not depend on previous prolonged protein deprivation or on the use of immature rats but did depend upon an intermittent supply of amino acids during 3 d before conditioning. Subcutaneous injection of deficient amino acid mixture did not establish rejection, suggesting that conditioning depended on rapid delivery of the deficient mixture into the circulation.

5. It is concluded that the critical biochemical events which lead to the rejection of diets that are imbalanced or deficient in essential amino acids occur soon after ingestion of the diet, and may have been effective in producing a conditioned aversion before any suppression of food intake appears. It is suggested that the depression of food consumption, which is the normal response to an imbalanced diet, is in this instance the result of conditioned response to sensory qualities of the diet rather than to the direct effect of biochemical stimuli.

Olfactory conditioning by association with histidine-free or balanced amino acid loads in rats

An histidine-devoid but otherwise balanced amino acid mixture depressed food intake from 2 hr after its gastric intubation. It induced conditioned aversion to an odour incorporated in a protein-free diet presented for 6 h following intubation. In other rats, a balanced amino acid mixture established conditioned preference for odour presented in the same diet for 6 h following intubation. The degree of preference was considerably less than the degree of aversion.

Food preferences acquired by association with variations in amino acid nutrition

Protein-deprived rats were given, on one day, a balanced mixture of amino acids followed by access to protein-free food having a distinctive odour. On another day, an imbalanced (histidine-free) amino acid mixture was given just before food having another odour. The rats afterwards preferred the balance-paired odour to the imbalance-paired odour. The preference was acquired whether the duration of odour presentation, or the amount of odourised food taken, was kept constant on the two conditioning days. Retention of the preference seemed unattenuated after 4 weeks. An attraction to the balance-paired odour (relative to odours paired with a water load) contributed to the acquired preference. There was also a relative aversion to unfamiliar odours when they had been paired with imbalance. Such acquired chemosensory control of preferences, together with an anorexigenic effect of imbalanced amino acid mixtures, can account for characteristics of feeding behaviour under conditions in which the diet is deficient in an essential amino acid.