Effect of cholecystokinin on meal size and intermeal interval in the sham-feeding rat.

After 3-hr food deprivation, rats with gastric fistulas ate liquid food with the fistula closed (normal feeding) or open (sham feeding). Meal size (MS) was larger, latency to rest (LR) after a meal was longer, and intermeal interval (IMI) was shorter during sham feeding than during normal feeding. The putative satiety signal cholecystokinin (CCK, 20% pure) decreased MS and LR and increased IMI during sham feeding. After CCK (30 U/kg) the MS, LR, and IMI were the same during sham feeding as during normal feeding. The synthetic octapeptide (OCT) of CCK, which has the known biological actions of the complete hormone, reproduced the effects of CCK (30 U/kg) on MS and LR but not on IMI. Ingestive behavior was not nonspecifically suppressed by CCK or OCT because water drinking was not inhibited by CCK or OCT. The CCK and OCT were also tested for their ability to serve as unconditioned stimuli (UCS) for the formation of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) in the 3-hr food-deprived sham-feeding rat. The OCT (30 U/kg) did not serve as a UCS for a CTA in the same sham-feeding conditions in which OCT produced normal MS and LR. Impure CCK (30 U/kg), however, did serve as a UCS for a CTA under these conditions. The differential effectiveness of CCK and OCT for IMI and CTA may be due to non-CCK factors in the impure extract of CCK. These experiments demonstrate that the preabsorptive food-contingent stimuli of sham feeding plus exogenous CCK are sufficient for normal short-term satiety under certain conditions, and they provide further evidence consistent with the hypothesis that cholecystokinin produces satiety in rats.