Normal pancreatic and intestinal enzymes in hypophagic growth-retarded rats that received dorsomedial hypothalamic lesions shortly after weaning.

Male weanling Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral electrolytic lesions in the dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei (DMNL rats). Sham-operated rats served as controls. After being fed lab chow for two postoperative weeks, the animals were divided into four groups. One group of DMNL rats and controls received a high-caloric diet (high-fat diet, chocolate chip cookies, 32% sucrose solution, potato chips and marshmallows), whereas another group of DMNL rats and controls continued to receive lab chow. The experiment was terminated on the 185th postoperative day. In accordance with previous findings, DMNL rats, irrespective of diet, were lighter and shorter than controls. In addition, DMNL rats fed junk food were lighter than DMNL rats fed lab chow, and junk-fed controls weighed as much as chow-fed controls. Both DMNL rats and controls fed junk food were also shorter and showed higher carcass fat than their chow-fed counterparts. Also, DMNL rats fed junk food had less carcass fat than junk-fed sham-operated controls, whereas in accordance with previous findings, there was no difference between chow-fed DMNL rats and chow-fed sham-operated controls. Irrespective of diet, DMNL rats ate less calories than their respective sham-operated controls. Both absolute and percent pancreas weight and protein/pancreas were unaffected in DMNL rats but were reduced in both junk-fed groups in comparison with their chow-fed counterparts. Both concentrations and contents of pancreatic trypsinogen, amylase and lipase were unaffected in DMNL rats but total activities of all three enzymes were dramatically reduced in the junk-fed compared with the chow-fed DMNL rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)