Goldthioglucose causes brain norepinephrine and serotonin depletion correlated with increased body weight.

Goldthioglucose (GTG) injected i.p. in mice is known to cause hyperphagia and obesity which is related to ventromedial hypothalamic damage and norepinephrine (NE) depletion in females. In the present experiment 6 doses of GTG were tested in males. After 160 days the monoamine content of whole brain was measured. Norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (SER) were depleted without changes in dopamine content. Brain NE and SER were both negatively correlated with body weight. These experiments extend earlier studies by suggesting that GTG obesity in mice may be caused by NE depletion in males as well as females and by suggesting that the obesity is also a function of serotonin depletion.