Conjeevaram H S, Mullen K D, May E J, McCullough A J
Department of Medicine, MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44109.
Hepatology. 1994 Feb;19(2):381-8.
Alterations in behavior are frequently described in rats subjected to portacaval shunt. Previous work has reported reduced spontaneous motor activity in various settings (nighttime, red light, decreased illumination) in this animal model. We investigated this phenomenon in rats of both genders subjected to portacaval shunt to determine whether our previously observed divergent growth patterns (males reduced, females unchanged) had any impact on the alterations in spontaneous motor activity in this model. Dietary intake, growth, motor activity and serum ammonia and amino acid concentrations were measured, in addition to final liver and spleen weights, in each animal after 3 to 4 wk of observation. Our results reconfirm the differential impact of portacaval shunt on growth in male (35% reduction p < 0.01) but not female rats (5% reduction, NS) compared with their respective-gender sham-operated controls. In addition, spontaneous motor activity was significantly reduced in male (congruent to 50%, p = 0.01) but not female rats subjected to portacaval shunt. The reduction of activity in male rats subjected to portacaval shunt did not correlate with any of the measured biochemical data or calculated nutritional/growth parameters. Thus we observed gender-dependent reduction in spontaneous motor activity after portacaval shunt in the rat. The mechanism for this phenomenon is unknown, but it is easily investigated with this reproducible model.
门腔分流术后的大鼠常出现行为改变。先前的研究报道，在该动物模型中，在各种环境条件下（夜间、红灯、光照减弱）大鼠的自发运动活动会减少。我们对接受门腔分流术的雌雄大鼠进行了研究，以确定我们之前观察到的不同生长模式（雄性生长减缓，雌性生长无变化）是否会对该模型中自发运动活动的改变产生任何影响。在观察3至4周后，测量了每只动物的饮食摄入量、生长情况、运动活动以及血清氨和氨基酸浓度，此外还测量了最终的肝脏和脾脏重量。我们的结果再次证实，与各自性别的假手术对照组相比，门腔分流术对雄性大鼠生长的影响具有差异（降低35%，p < 0.01），而对雌性大鼠生长的影响则不明显（降低5%，无统计学意义）。此外，接受门腔分流术的雄性大鼠的自发运动活动显著减少（约50%，p = 0.01），而雌性大鼠则没有。接受门腔分流术的雄性大鼠活动的减少与任何测量的生化数据或计算的营养/生长参数均无关联。因此，我们观察到大鼠门腔分流术后自发运动活动存在性别依赖性降低。这种现象的机制尚不清楚，但利用这个可重复的模型很容易进行研究。
