Meal patterns prior to and following liver transplantation in rats

Afferent nerves of the liver have been suggested to have a major influence on feeding behavior. Nevertheless, total liver denervations (TLD) in rats, that were verified by histofluorescence technique, did not change short or long term meal patterns. However, these studies have been criticized that the TLD procedures may have missed some liver innervation. In the present study meal patterns were conducted prior to and following liver transplantation in rats using a transplant procedure with arterialization. The transplanted rats recovered their pre-operative body weight in 7.5 +/- 0.6 days and meal pattern analysis was conducted two days later. In comparison with pre-surgery there was no differences in 24 h food intake (gms); dark phase: intake (gms), meal size (gms), meal duration (min), inter-meal interval (min), and frequency; and light phase: intake (gms), meal size (gms), meal duration (min), inter-meal interval (min), and frequency. These data, like earlier work in TLD rats showing that the animals consumed normal meals (when offered a variety of diets), starting with the first meal post-surgery, question the importance of liver afferents in the control of feeding behavior.