Involvement of a humoral factor in regulation of body weight in parabiotic rats

Excessive food intake and obesity was induced in one member of parabiotic pairs by electrical stimulation (three 30-min sessions/day for 2 wk) of the lateral hypothalamus (LH). The nonstimulated partners reduced spontaneous food intake the fatter the stimulated animals became. This reduced food intake resulted in a decreased body weight, fat content, and fat-free solid body mass. The decrease of food intake was not due to changed social behavior of the obese partner. It must be attributed to transmission of a humoral satiety factor. The very first stimulation of the LH in the stimulated partners resulted in a large increase in blood glucose and glucagon level without much change in the insulin level. These changes in blood parameters were probably due to strong sympathetic arousal. In the nonstimulated animals there were practically no changes in these parameters. One week of fattening resulted in increased basal glucose and insulin levels in the stimulated animals and decreased glucose levels in the nonstimulated partners, in which the basal insulin levels remained nearly normal. Basal glucagon levels were the same in both partners and did not differ from the prefattening situation. At that time during stimulation the obese animals showed a large increase in glucose and glucagon levels and a decrease in insulin level. On the other hand the nonstimulated animals showed a slow gradual increase in glucose and insulin level due to transmission from their fat partners because of the large gradient in these substances between the animals. These phenomena were still more pronounced after 2 wk of fattening. It is tentatively concluded that the humoral satiety factor is neither circulating insulin nor glucagon nor one of the major circulating nutrients.