QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by West, D. B. Articles by Woods, S. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by West, D. B. Articles by Woods, S. C.

Infant Gastrostomy and Chronic Formula Infusion as a Technique to Overfeed and Accelerate Weight Gain of Neonatal Rats¹

David B. West^2,*, Jaime Diaz and Stephen C. Woods^*,,

^* Department of Physiology/Psychology Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Female rat pups were overfed by continuous intragastric infusion of a milk formula from day 4 through day 18 postpartum. These rats dramatically accelerated weight gain after day 10. By day 18 the overfed pups weighed significantly more than both normally reared 18-day-old pups and pups reared artifically but maintained at the same growth rate as normally reared pups. On day 18 the catheters were removed from gastrostomized pups and normally reared pups were removed from their dams. There-after, all groups were maintained ad libitum on a standard diet. The body weights of overfed pups were still significantly greater than those of both other groups on day 120. This procedure provides an important new tool to examine the role of early nutrition in the etiology of obesity.

KEY WORDS: • body weight regulation • neonate • obesity • nutrition

¹ This research was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant No. AM 17844 and the NIH supported Physiology/Psychology training grant No. GM-07108-05. The work was also supported by the Graduate School Research Fund of the University of Washington. Portions of this paper were presented at the 1980 annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.

² Address all reprint requests to: David B. West, Department of Psychology NI-25, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195.

Manuscript received 19 October 1981.