@article{3096961,
    title = "Early neuroendocrine alterations in female rats following a diet
moderately enriched in fat",
    author = "Soulis, G and Kitraki, E and Gerozissis, K",
    journal = "Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology",
    year = "2005",
    volume = "25",
    number = "5",
    pages = "869-880",
    publisher = "SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS",
    issn = "0272-4340, 1573-6830",
    doi = "10.1007/s10571-005-4943-9",
    keywords = "hippocampus; corticosteroid receptors; leptin; insulin; stress; dietary
fat",
    abstract = "1. High-fat diets disrupt metabolic equilibrium and
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function and may lead to the
development of metabolic and endocrine dysfunctions. The early
neuroendocrine responses elicited by a combination of short-term
metabolic and emotional stressors is not fully elucidated.
2. The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact on
female rats, of a short-term enriched in fat diet, combined with an
acute stressor.
3. Adult female Wistar rats were fed a fat diet for 7 days and
subsequently exposed to 5 min swimming stress. Plasma leptin, insulin,
glucose, luteinizing hormone (LH) and corticosterone, along with brain
corticosteroid receptors’ mRNAs were measured at 1 h post stress.
4. Diet, compared to chow, reduced food intake and body weight gain,
increased leptin and LH, and decreased glucose in the periphery. The
diet increased plasma corticosterone and reduced GR mRNA in the
hippocampus, similarly to swim stress.
5. The diet significantly modified the animals’ response to the
subsequent swim stress, by blocking further corticosterone rise and GR
mRNA reduction. In addition, exposure of diet-fed rats to stress,
altered their endocrine response, in terms of leptin and LH.
6. These observations suggest that even short, moderately unbalanced
diets can affect peripheral and central components of energy balance,
reproduction and stress response."
}