Presentation Details
| Microstructural Analysis of Sucrose Licking Behavior in Rats Chronically Treated with the Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist Semaglutide. A.Valentina Nisi1, Ginger D.Blonde1, Carolina R.Cawthon2, Emily Gallagher1, Galina Knysh1, Joshua Hackett1, Jacob Scarbrough1, Alan C.Spector1. 1Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.2Department of Nutrition, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA |
Abstract
Counter to the hypothesis that the GLP-1R agonist semaglutide (SEMA) decreases the reward value and increases the satiating potency of palatable food, rats undergoing chronic SEMA treatment using a protocol emulating clinical practice with a 10-day dose escalation (ESC; 7–70 μg/kg) followed by a prolonged high-dose maintenance (MAIN; 70 μg/kg) overconsumed low to mid-range concentrations of sucrose (SUC) solution in daily 23-h two-bottle tests relative to vehicle-treated controls (VEH). Here, we tracked the drinking behavior of non-deprived male rats presented with 1 bottle of 4% SUC in 60-min tests for 7 days before (last 2 days served as baseline; PRE) SEMA (n=10) or VEH (n=10) treatment (injected 1 h before session), during the 10-day ESC and 10-day MAIN protocol, and for 10 days after drug treatment ceased (POST). ESC, MAIN and POST data were transformed relative to PRE (log10(ratio)). Relative to VEH, SEMA rats reduced daily chow and total caloric intake and lost body weight (BW), despite increasing their SUC intake. These effects began to wane during POST, as the measures for SEMA and VEH rats began to converge. The number of licking bursts was higher in the SEMA rats compared to the VEH group, and this difference was also reflected in a longer meal (before 5-min pause) duration. There was no group difference in burst size. The effect of SEMA on SUC intake and several microstructural parameters became most evident during MAIN. The SEMA-induced increase in SUC intake was primarily attributable to elevated licking during the first third of the meal. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that SEMA does not decrease the reward value and appears to decrease, not increase, the satiating potency of low concentrations of sucrose solutions, at least under our test conditions.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.