Kasper James M, Johnson Sarah B, Hommel Jonathan D
Center for Addiction Research, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch.
Center for Addiction Research, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch;
J Vis Exp. 2014 Jun 27(88):e51575. doi: 10.3791/51575.
Obesity is a growing problem in the United States of America, with more than a third of the population classified as obese. One factor contributing to this multifactorial disorder is the consumption of a high fat diet, a behavior that has been shown to increase both caloric intake and body fat content. However, the elements regulating preference for high fat food over other foods remain understudied. To overcome this deficit, a model to quickly and easily test changes in the preference for dietary fat was developed. The Fat Preference model presents rats with a series of choices between foods with differing fat content. Like humans, rats have a natural bias toward consuming high fat food, making the rat model ideal for translational studies. Changes in preference can be ascribed to the effect of either genetic differences or pharmacological interventions. This model allows for the exploration of determinates of fat preference and screening pharmacotherapeutic agents that influence acquisition of obesity.
肥胖在美国是一个日益严重的问题，超过三分之一的人口被归类为肥胖。导致这种多因素疾病的一个因素是高脂肪饮食的摄入，这种行为已被证明会增加热量摄入和体脂含量。然而，调节对高脂肪食物而非其他食物偏好的因素仍未得到充分研究。为了克服这一不足，开发了一种快速简便地测试饮食脂肪偏好变化的模型。脂肪偏好模型让大鼠在不同脂肪含量的食物之间进行一系列选择。与人类一样，大鼠天生倾向于食用高脂肪食物，这使得大鼠模型成为转化研究的理想选择。偏好的变化可归因于基因差异或药物干预的影响。该模型有助于探索脂肪偏好的决定因素，并筛选影响肥胖发生的药物治疗剂。
