AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 247, Issue 1 57-R62, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society
Metabolic fuel homeostasis in golden hamsters: effects of fasting, refeeding, glucose, and insulin
N. Rowland
Experiments were conducted to investigate possible metabolic correlates of
the unusual ingestive behavior of hamsters after food deprivation. A
hypothesis of metabolic refractoriness predicts that hamsters, unlike rats,
should not show changes in plasma metabolic fuels, adipose tissue, or liver
after fasting and subsequent refeeding. This hypothesis was discredited by
findings that fasted hamsters, like rats, have increased plasma ketones and
free fatty acids and decreased liver glycogen. On refeeding, hamsters
showed rapid reversal of these changes, with supranormal glycogen content
and apparent fatty acid synthesis in liver. Additional studies examined the
metabolic responses of hamsters and rats to exogenous insulin or glucose
administration. Incorporation of 3H2O into liver fatty acids was greatly
elevated in rats by both insulin and glucose, but in hamsters only insulin
was effective. Some of these metabolic differences may help our
understanding of the unusual refractoriness of hamster food intake to
various stimuli.
