2-Mercaptoacetate stimulates sham feeding in rats

Rats maintained on a LF diet (Purina chow) were pretreated with 0.3 M/kg 2-mercaptoacetate, an antagonist of B-oxidation of fatty acids, 60 min before sham feeding condensed milk with open gastric cannulas. 2-Mercaptoacetate significantly increased 30-min milk intake by about 35%. This suggests that blockade of fatty acid oxidation 1) participates control of feeding even in rats adapted to low fat diets, and 2) modulates not only the timing of meal initiation as previously reported by others, but also may influence the rate of ingestion and/or meal size. Finally, 2-mercaptoacetate pretreatment did not block the synergistic inhibition of sham feeding elicited by simultaneous injections of glucagon and cholecystokinin.