Related Experiment Videos
Activity-based anorexia: relationship to gender and activity-stress ulcers
L E Doerries1, E Z Stanley, P F Aravich
1Department of Psychology, Christopher Newport College, Newport News, VA 23606.
Physiology & Behavior
|November 1, 1991
Summary
Activity-based anorexia (ABA) and activity-stress ulcers (ASU) in rats show sex differences in susceptibility. ASUs appear to be a consequence of ABA, not its cause.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Animal Models of Eating Disorders
- Physiological Psychology
Background:
- Activity-based anorexia (ABA) and activity-stress ulcers (ASU) are induced by food restriction and voluntary exercise in rodents.
- Understanding the relationship between ABA and ASU, and potential sex differences, is crucial for modeling eating disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sex differences in susceptibility to ABA and ASU.
- To examine the relationship between weight loss, gastric lesions, and running behavior in male and female rats.
Main Methods:
- Rats (male and female) were subjected to food restriction and voluntary wheel running.
- Animals were assessed at 25% and 30% body weight loss criteria.
- Gastric lesions and running/feeding behaviors were quantified.
Main Results:
- Male rats reached weight loss criteria faster than females.
- Gastric lesions were absent at 25% weight loss but present in 52% of rats at 30% weight loss.
- Females exhibited higher food intake and running activity than males at both weight loss criteria, with no sex difference in lesion incidence at 30% weight loss.
Conclusions:
- Activity-stress ulcers are a consequence, not a cause, of activity-based anorexia.
- Sexually dimorphic susceptibility exists for ABA, but not for ASU.
- The 25% body weight loss criterion may not be optimal for inducing ASU in ABA paradigms.