Selective hepatic vagotomy does not prevent compensatory feeding in response to body weight changes

The effects of selective hepatic vagotomy on compensatory adjustments of feeding in response to experimentally induced changes in body weight were investigated in rats. Repeated injections of slow-acting insulin increased food intake and body weight in vagotomized as well as in sham-vagotomized rats. When the treatment was stopped, the rats of both surgical groups displayed a compensatory hypophagia of similar magnitude and body weight returned to preinjection levels. In turn, after 7 days of restricted feeding (5 g/day) with a concomitant loss of body weight, rats became hyperphagic and body weight approached the normal level. Again, the feeding responses or body weight changes did not differ between vagotomized and sham-vagotomized rats. The results demonstrate that selective hepatic vagotomy does not disrupt the putative feedback-loop between body weight and feeding, and raise questions concerning the role of the liver in the lipostatic control of food intake.