Journal of Nutrition

Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wallwork, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Sandstead, H. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wallwork, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Sandstead, H. H.

Effect of Zinc Deficiency on Appetite and Free Amino Acid Concentrations in Rat Brain1

James C. Wallwork and Harold H. Sandstead

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND 58202

Brain amino acids were measured in 30-day-old male Long-Evans rats subsequent to feeding a 20% egg white biotin-enriched zinc-deficient diet for 9 days. The zinc-deficient (ZD) group was given distilled deionized water. Zinc-supplemented control groups included pair-fed (PF), ad libitum-fed (AL) and ad libitum-fed, over-night fasted (OF) animals. Brain tyrosine concentrations and related amino acid ratios tended to be higher when food was consumed in all groups. Brain tryptophan concentrations and a brain amino acid ratio (glycine + serine + glutamine + taurine:leucine + isoleucine + valine + methionine) were not related to food intake in ZD rats in contrast to zinc-adequate controls. Also the brain ratio of tryptophan to the sum of large neutral amino acids minus tryptophan was not related to food intake in the ZD and AL-OF groups in contrast to the PF group. There were some differences in brain amino acid concentrations between ZD rats and the control groups; however, the pattern of the brain amino acids in ZD rats did not suggest that food intake was directly influenced by them.

KEY WORDS: • zinc deficiency • appetite • brain amino acids

1 This investigation was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Agreement No. 12-14-3001-294.

Manuscript received 21 May 1982.




Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Copyright © 1983 by American Society for Nutrition