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Sources of variability in rat feeding trials with single meal tests
Author(s) -
Buraczewski Stanislas,
Geoffrey Porter J. W.,
Rolls Brian A.,
Zebrowska Teresa
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740300109
Subject(s) - stomach , ingestion , meal , gastric emptying , zoology , cage , small intestine , chemistry , medicine , biology , food science , endocrinology , mathematics , combinatorics
Abstract The responses of the laboratory rat to the ingestion of a single test meal, as measured by the contents of the stomach and small intestine and the plasma amino acid (PPA) concentrations in portal and systemic blood, were investigated under different experimental conditions. The variations introduced were different cages, different pre‐experimental diets and training the rats to eat for a short daily period. The rate of stomach emptying was slower in rats housed in anticoprophagy cages than in those kept in wire mesh cages and the variability was smaller, but the PAA concentrations were unaffected by the type of cage. Rats maintained during the pre‐experimental period on three different diets had similar PAA concentrations after an 18 h fast. Trained rats exhibited more rapid stomach emptying than did untrained animals, but the quantity of material in the small intestine was little affected. Training affected the systemic, but not the portal, PAA concentrations. Suggestions are made of suitable experimental conditions for assessing the short‐term response to single meals.