Food availability and quality in desert habitats are spatially and temporally unpredictable, and animals face periods of food shortage. The golden spiny mouse (Acomys russatus) is an omnivorous desert rodent that does not hoard food, requiring it to withstand such periods by physiological means alone. In response to food restriction, plasma leptin concentrations, core body temperature, and ener...

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of the stress of chronic food restriction on the development of adjuvant arthritis in Long Evans male rats. METHODS Four groups of animals were compared: non-treated control (C) and arthritic (AA) rats, both with free access to food and water and two analogous groups with a 40% food restriction, i.e. non-treated (FR) and arthritic (AA-FR) animals. All rats were k...

To examine the effect of 50% food restriction over a period of 3 days on mitochondrial energy metabolism, liver mitochondria were isolated from ad libitum and food-restricted rats. Mitochondrial enzyme activities and oxygen consumption were assessed spectrophotometrically and polarographically. With regard to body weight loss (-5%), food restriction decreased the liver to body mass ratio by 7%....

Opioid agonists and antagonists respectively increase and decrease food intake. That selective mu opioid antagonists are more effective than antisense probes directed against the mu opioid receptor (MOR-1) gene in reducing deprivation-induced feeding suggests a role for isoforms. Both food restriction and deprivation alter protein and mRNA levels of opioid peptides and receptors. Antisera direc...

We tested the hypothesis that the effects of food restriction on behavioral motivation are mediated by one or both of the RFamide peptides, RFamide-related peptide-3 (RFRP-3) and kisspeptin (Kp) in female Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Female hamsters fed ad libitum and given a choice between food and adult male hamsters are highly motivated to visit males instead of food on all four d...

The mechanisms underlying the prevention of age-related polyuria by chronic food restriction were investigated in female WAG/Rij rats. The decreased osmolality of renal papilla observed in senescent rats was not corrected by food restriction. A reduced urea content in the inner medulla of senescent rats, fed ad libitum or food-restricted, was suggested by the marked decrease in expression of UT...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of two different levels of food restriction on testicular angiogenic activity, microvascularization, tissue growth, and regression, using the rabbit as a study model. The rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus cuniculus) were randomly assigned to a control group (A, n=5), fed ad libitum, and to groups B (n=5) and C (n=5), with two different levels...

The extent to which seasonal plasticity in torpor displayed by one of the smallest Malagasy primates (Microcebus murinus) will help survival in the context of ongoing global change-induced chronic food shortage, is unknown. Body temperature (Tb) and locomotor activity were measured by telemetry in short- (SD, winter-acclimated) and long-days (LD, summer-acclimated) males (n = 24) during an expe...

There is often an imbalance between the intake of n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in patients with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Oxidative damage and the production of reactive oxygen species by various immune cells follow during the ageing process. Caloric restriction induces a transcriptional response of the genes known to inhibit oxidative stress, tumourigenesis, splicing mRN...