Involvement of Cholecystokinin in Food Intake: II. Lactational Hyperphagia in the Rat

Abstract The role of Cholecystokinin in the hyperphagia of lactation was studied by measuring the concentration of this hormone in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in relation to food intake in lactating rats. Cholecystokinin was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and radioimmunoassay in plasma and by radioimmunoassay in cerebrospinal fluid. Plasma concentrations of Cholecystokinin were increased in freely-fed lactating rats compared with non-lactating, regularly cycling rats. However, after 24 h of food deprivation the concentration of plasma Cholecystokinin was markedly decreased in the lactating rats to levels which were lower than those of non-lactating animals. Furthermore, plasma levels of Cholecystokinin did not increase in response to 1 h of feeding in lactating rats, whereas in non-lactating rats they did. In contrast, the concentration of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid was the same in freely-fed lactating and non-lactating rats. As in plasma, food deprivation markedly decreased the levels of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid of lactating rats but unlike in plasma, the levels were restored by feeding. The levels of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity were not changed under these conditions in the non-lactating rats. These results show that there is no correlation between the concentration of Cholecystokinin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, which supports the suggestion that the cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid is derived from the brain. Removal of the litter from lactating rats deprived of food for 24 h reduced food intake and increased the concentration of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid, but not in plasma. The inhibition of food intake caused by an intraperitoneal injection of Cholecystokinin octapeptide increased after litter removal. It is suggested that hunger in the lactating rat is reflected by a decrease in the levels of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid and satiety by the restoration of these levels.