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Updated: Jun 14, 2025
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Fat Preference: A Novel Model of Eating Behavior in Rats
Published on: June 27, 2014
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Dietary fat content and absorption shape standard diet devaluation through hunger circuits
Ames K Sutton Hickey1, Jordan Becker2, Eva O Karolczak3
1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Molecular Metabolism
|August 31, 2024
Summary
High fat diet (HFD) consumption leads to devaluation of standard diet (SD) in mice. This effect is driven by post-ingestive fat feedback, not taste, highlighting the importance of fat digestion in diet preference.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Metabolic Research
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- High-fat diets (HFDs) induce a preference over standard diets (SDs) in mice.
- This HFD-induced SD devaluation persists even during caloric deprivation.
- The specific dietary components and experiences driving this devaluation remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of fat content, composition, and sensory properties in HFD-induced SD devaluation.
- To explore the contribution of taste perception versus post-ingestive feedback in this phenomenon.
- To determine the impact of fat absorption on HFD preference and SD devaluation.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal presentation of HFDs and SDs to wildtype mice, analyzing feeding and metabolic parameters.
- Assessment of acute HFD preference under various hunger states, including chemogenetic activation of Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons.
- Utilizing Transient Receptor Potential Channel type M5 (TRPM5) knockout mice to assess taste perception and orlistat to inhibit fat absorption.
Main Results:
- HFD-induced SD devaluation is dependent on fat content, composition, and preference, scaling with increased animal fat percentage.
- Ingestive experience, not initial sensory perception, is critical for devaluation, as shown by AgRP neuron activity recordings.
- Fat taste perception (TRPM5) did not affect HFD preference or SD devaluation, but inhibiting fat absorption (orlistat) abolished both HFD-induced weight gain and SD devaluation.
Conclusions:
- Post-ingestive feedback, specifically fat digestion, is essential for the expression of HFD-induced SD devaluation.
- Dietary fat's metabolic consequences, rather than its taste, are the primary drivers of altered food preferences.
- Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for addressing diet-related metabolic disorders.
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