Effects of intracranial injections of 6-OHDA on food and water intakes, body temperature and body weight regulation in the rat.

6-Hydroxydopamine was injected either intraventricularly (320 mug in 10 mul) or intrahypothalamically (64 mug in 2 mul) into rats kept under either free feeding or body weight reduced conditions. Intraventricular injections caused a temporary aphagia and hypodipsia in free feeding rats but daily measurements failed to reveal any long term effects; body weight reduced rats did not display the temporary aphagia but were initially hyperphagic. Injections into the more rostral hypothalamic areas of free feeding rats also showed only minimal short term effects; however, some of the body weight in both body weight reduced group died within several days of injection. Injections made at more posterior loci again showed very little effect in both body weight reduced and free feeding groups; some temporary disruption of feeding occurred from lesions in the proximity of the zone incerta of some free feeding animals.