Effects of PVN galanin on macronutrient selection

The neuropeptide galanin (GAL), after injection into the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), elicited a potent feeding response. In satiated rats maintained on pure macronutrient diets (protein, carbohydrate and fat), PVN GAL injection was found to cause a preferential increase in the consumption of the fat diet, with a significantly smaller increase in carbohydrate intake and no change in protein ingestion. When the fat diet was removed, GAL's stimulatory effect on carbohydrate ingestion was reliably and selectively enhanced. These effects of GAL stand in contrast to those of neuropeptide Y (NPY), which is co-localized with NE in the PVN and which induced in these animals a strong and selective enhancement of carbohydrate intake after PVN injection. Similarly, PVN NE, known to act via alpha 2-noradrenergic receptors, induced feeding specifically of carbohydrate and, to a small extent, fat. These differential results demonstrate the specificity of the effects of the peptides (GAL and NPY) and NE on macronutrient selection, all of which can be repeatedly observed in the same group of animals and which appear to be unrelated to the rats' natural 24 hr baseline preferences. However, we did observe a strong positive correlation between NE- and GAL-induced carbohydrate intake. In light of this relationship and additional pharmacological evidence linking GAL- and NE-induced feeding, it is proposed that the effects of GAL on macronutrient selection may be mediated, at least in part, by the alpha 2-noradrenergic feeding system within the PVN.