Some characteristics of feeding during streptozotocin induced diabetes in the rat

Injected 24 male Sprague-Dawley albino rats with a buffer solution or 25-45 or 50-60 mg/kg of streptozotocin. 4-9 days after 50-60 mg. of streptozotocin Ss showed abbreviated intermeal intervals. There was also a lack of proportionality in intermeal interval duration to size of the preceding meal. This result probably accounts for the hyperphagia which develops at 4-6 days and increases over 2 wk. Such effects were not seen in the lst 3 days, even though the Ss were glucosuric and polydipsic within 24 hr. of streptozotocin treatment. In contrast, decreases in basal feeding rate and in meal size did begin to develop in the 1st 3 days of diabetes. It is suggested that aversion to the diet develops immediately on insulin deficiency, but that the satiety deficits and hyperphagia in chronic diabetes are secondary to considerable changes in body composition.