Browsing by Subject "2,3,7,8-TETRACHLORODIBENZO-P-DIOXIN"
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(2019)Previous studies have shown that several aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonists, including β-naphthoflavone (BNF), elicit avoidance of novel food items in rodents, with this behavioral response displaying a similar doseresponse to hepatic induction of CYP1A1. The avoidance has been found to bear substantial similarity to conditioned taste avoidance/aversion (CTA). The present study set out to confirm the indispensability of AHR in the avoidance response, to verify whether vagal afferent fibers are involved in it, and to see if AHR signaling might interfere with the effect of the classic trigger of CTA, LiCl. To this end, globally AHR deficient (AHRKO) or vagotomized wildtype rats were treated by gavage with 60 mg/kg BNF or ip with 0.15M LiCl (4 ml/kg), and presented with chocolate which was either novel or familiar to them. Both the avoidance response and Cyp1a1 induction were missing in AHRKO rats. In contrast, Ahr+/− rats exhibited them in full, save for a single outlier. Total subdiaphragmatic vagotomy failed to interfere with the avoidance of novel or familiar chocolate or induction of Cyp1a1. After LiCl administration, male AHRKO rats showed a significantly mitigated suppression of chocolate consumption compared with wildtype animals (~60% vs. ~10% of control chocolate intake, respectively). A similar tendency was seen in females, but they were less responsive to LiCl. These findings corroborate AHR as a prerequisite of the BNF-induced novel food avoidance, prove vagal afferents unlikely mediators of this response, and imply an unforeseen involvement of AHR signaling in the thoroughly-characterized CTA instigated by LiCl.
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(2021)The physiological functions of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) are only beginning to unfold. Studies in wildtype and AHR knockout (AHRKO) mice have recently disclosed that AHR activity is required for obesity and steatohepatitis to develop when mice are fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). In addition, a line of AHRKO mouse has been reported to accumulate retinoids in the liver. Whether these are universal manifestations across species related to AHR activity level is not known yet. Therefore, we here subjected wildtype and AHRKO male rats (on Sprague-Dawley background) to HFD feeding coupled with free access to 10% sucrose solution and water; controls received a standard diet and water. Although the HFD-fed rats consumed more energy throughout the 24-week feeding regimen, they did not get overweight. However, relative weights of the brown and epididymal adipose tissues were elevated in HFDfed rats, while that of the liver was lower in AHRKO than wildtype rats. Moreover, the four groups exhibited diet-or genotype-dependent differences in biochemical variables, some of which suggested marked dissimilarities from AHRKO mice. Expression of pro-and anti-inflammatory genes was induced in livers of HFD-fed AHRKO rats, but histologically they did not differ from others. HFD reduced the hepatic concentrations of retinyl palmitate, 9-cis-4oxo-13,14-dihydroretinoic acid and (suggestively) retinol, whereas AHR status had no effect. Hence, the background strain/line of AHRKO rat is resistant to diet-induced obesity, and AHR does not modulate this or liver retinoid concentrations. Yet, subtle AHR-dependent differences in energy balance-related factors exist despite similar weight development. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
