Vogel Heike, Kraemer Maria, Rabasa Cristina, Askevik Kaisa, Adan Roger A H, Dickson Suzanne L
Department of Physiology/Endocrinology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Experimental Diabetology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany; German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), München-Neuherberg, Germany.
Department of Physiology/Endocrinology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Behav Brain Res. 2017 Jun 15;328:95-104. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.02.037. Epub 2017 Apr 5.
Here we sought to define behavioural traits linked to anxiety, reward, and exploration in different strains of rats commonly used in obesity research. We hypothesized that genetic variance may contribute not only to their metabolic phenotype (that is well documented) but also to the expression of these behavioural traits. Rat strains that differ in their susceptibility to develop an obese phenotype (Sprague-Dawley, Obese Prone, Obese Resistant, and Zucker rats) were exposed to a number of behavioural tests starting at the age of 8 weeks. We found a similar phenotype in the obesity susceptible models, Obese Prone and Zucker rats, with a lower locomotor activity, exploratory activity, and higher level of anxiety-like behaviour in comparison to the leaner Obese Resistant strain. We did not find evidence that rat strains with a genetic predisposition to obesity differed in their ability to experience reward from chocolate (in a condition place preference task). However, Zucker rats show higher motivated behaviour for sucrose compared to Obese Resistant rats when the effort required to obtain palatable food is relatively low. Together our data demonstrate that rat strains that differ in their genetic predisposition to develop obesity also differ in their performance in behavioural tests linked to anxiety, exploration, and reward and that these differences are independent of body weight. We conclude that genetic variations which determine body weight and the aforementioned behaviours co-exist but that future studies are required to identify whether (and which) common genes are involved.
在此，我们试图确定肥胖研究中常用的不同品系大鼠与焦虑、奖赏和探索相关的行为特征。我们假设，遗传变异可能不仅导致其代谢表型（这已得到充分记录），还会影响这些行为特征的表达。对易患肥胖表型的大鼠品系（斯普拉格 - 道利大鼠、肥胖倾向大鼠、肥胖抵抗大鼠和 Zucker 大鼠）从 8 周龄开始进行了一系列行为测试。我们在肥胖易感模型（肥胖倾向大鼠和 Zucker 大鼠）中发现了相似的表型，与较瘦的肥胖抵抗品系相比，它们的运动活动、探索活动较低，且焦虑样行为水平较高。我们没有发现证据表明具有肥胖遗传易感性的大鼠品系在从巧克力中体验奖赏的能力方面存在差异（在条件性位置偏爱任务中）。然而，当获取美味食物所需的努力相对较低时，与肥胖抵抗大鼠相比，Zucker 大鼠对蔗糖表现出更高的动机行为。我们的数据共同表明，在肥胖遗传易感性方面存在差异的大鼠品系，在与焦虑、探索和奖赏相关的行为测试中的表现也存在差异，且这些差异与体重无关。我们得出结论，决定体重和上述行为的遗传变异共存，但未来需要进行研究以确定是否（以及哪些）共同基因参与其中。
