Loss of glucagon suppression of feeding after vagotomy in rats

Infusion of pancreatic glucagon through the hepatic-portal vein decreased short-term food intake in sham-vagotomized but not in subdiaphragmatically vagotomized rats. Measurement of hepatic glycogen storage showed that vagotomized rats maintain a lower glycogen level than control animals over the four fasting periods evaluated. To determine whether the absence of a glucagon effect on feeding in vagotomized rats was the result of the reduced amount of substrate for glycogenolysis, vagotomized rats were not fasted and control animals were food deprived for 8h to produce comparable hepatic glycogen levels. Hepatic-portal infusion of glucagon into these differentially fasted animals suppressed feeding in control rats but not in vagotomized rats. It is concluded that the ineffectiveness of glucagon in suppressing feeding in vagotomized rats is not due to reduced concentration of hepatic glycogen. Instead, it is likely that glucagon induces glycogenolysis, but the glucose, or some other correlate of glycogen breakdown, loses its ability to produce satiety subsequent to vagotomy.