ANTECEDENT DIET AFFECTS THE RESPONSES OF RATS TO STARVATION-REFEEDING

The effect of antecedent diet on the G6PD enzyme activity response to starvation-refeeding was studied. Male rats were fed either a commerci ally prepared open formula stock diet (C) or a 65% glucose diet (G) fo r 3 weeks prior to the onset of the starvation- refeeding experiment. At the onset of the starvation refeeding portion of the experiment, ha lf of the rats were starved (SR) and half continued to be fed ad libit um (AL) for 48 hours. At the end of this time all rats were fed the 65 % glucose diet. Four dietary treatment groups resulted: CAL, GAL, CSR, GSR. A time course for G6PD enzyme induction was generated. No differ ences in food intake or body weight were observed during the 3 week di et adaptation period. Four rats from each group were killed every 4 ho urs for 48 hours to generate the time course of the G6PD response. SR resulted a 4-7 fold increase in G6PD activity in CSR rats by 24-48 hou rs of refeeding and a 2-4 fold increase in GSR rats by 24-48 hours of refeeding. No striking differences in enzyme activity were observed be tween CAL and GAL or CSR and GSR groups; however, the magnitude of the enzyme induction was altered by the antecedent diet. In SR rats, enzy me activity increased with increased length of the refeed period. It a ppears that the antecedent diet alters the magnitude of the enzyme res ponse to starvation-refeeding.