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Publication
Palatable Food Affects HPA Axis Responsivity and Forebrain Neurocircuitry in an
Estrous Cycle-specific Manner in Female Rats.
Authors Egan AE, Thompson AMK, Buesing D, Fourman SM, Packard AEB, Terefe T, Li D, Wang
X, Song S, Solomon MB, Ulrich-Lai YM
Submitted By Submitted Externally on 12/3/2021
Status Published
Journal Neuroscience
Year 2018
Date Published 8/1/2018
Volume : Pages 384 : 224 - 240
PubMed Reference 29852242
Abstract Eating palatable foods can provide stress relief, but the mechanisms by which
this occurs are unclear. We previously characterized a limited sucrose intake
(LSI) paradigm in which twice-daily access to a small amount of 30% sucrose (vs.
water as a control) reduces hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis
responses to stress and alters neuronal activation in stress-regulatory brain
regions in male rats. However, women may be more prone to 'comfort feeding'
behaviors than men, and stress-related eating may vary across the menstrual
cycle. This suggests that LSI effects may be sex- and estrous cycle-dependent.
The present study therefore investigated the effects of LSI on HPA axis stress
responsivity, as well as markers of neuronal activation/plasticity in stress-
and reward-related neurocircuitry in female rats across the estrous cycle. We
found that LSI reduced post-restraint stress plasma ACTH in female rats
specifically during proestrus/estrus (P/E). LSI also increased basal
(non-stress) FosB/deltaFosB- and pCREB-immunolabeling in the basolateral
amygdala (BLA) and central amygdala specifically during P/E. Finally, Bayesian
network modeling of the FosB/deltaFosB and pCREB expression data identified a
neurocircuit that includes the BLA, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and
bed nucleus of the stria terminalis as likely being modified by LSI during P/E.
When considered in the context of our prior results, the present findings
suggest that palatable food reduces stress responses in female rats similar to
males, but in an estrous cycle-dependent manner. Further, the BLA may contribute
to the LSI effects in both sexes, whereas the involvement of other brain regions
appears to be sex-dependent.




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