FEEDING BEHAVIOUR ALTERATION IN RATS DUE TO NEONATAL MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG) ADMINISTRATION

A. P. GARCÍA; V. SALAZAR; C. ARIZNAVARRETA; M HERMANUSSEN; J. A. F. TRESGUERRES

Praga

Workshop; EURISKED/CREDO. Cluster Workshop on Multi-organic Risk Assestment of Endocrine Disrupters; 2005

ABSTRACT It is well known that parenteral neonatal monosodium glutamate (MSG) administration in rats induces changes in some pituitary hormones and produces metabolic alterations resulting in neuroendocrine dysfunction and obesity. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether oral MSG administration was also able to produce the same effect. To evaluate this hypothesis thirty Wistar pregnant rats were divided in four groups (control, injection, MSG 2,5 and MSG 5 group), receiving diets containing 0, 0, 2.5, or 5.0 g/day MSG respectively from day 14th of pregnancy onwards. Offspring injection group was neonatally s.c. injected with MSG (4mg/g BW) on alternate days for the first 10 postnatal days (day 2, 4, 6, 8, 10). The other groups received saline solution injections on the same days. After weaning, MSG feeding was continued in the offspring at the same concentrations until day 90 of life. Half of the pups were sacrificed at day 30 of life and the rest at day 90. Blood samples were collected for Insulin, Leptin, GH and IGF-1 determinations. As expected, at 30 days of life, GH and IGF-1 plasma levels were significantly reduced in animals that received parenteral and oral MSG administration (p