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Division of Neuroscience and Behavior, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Abstract
The effects of photoperiod and the pineal hormone melatonin on the regulation of body weight and energy metabolism were examined in Syrian hamsters, Mesocricetus auratus. Short photoperiod-housed female and male hamsters showed increases in body weight gain, feed efficiency, carcass lipid, brown adipose tissue mass, and thermogenic capacity. These effects of short photoperiods were mimicked by afternoon melatonin injections to hamsters in long-day photoperiods and were exaggerated in hamsters fed high fat diets. To determine the role of the gonads in these effects, ovariectomized hamsters were treated similarly and found to exhibit changes in body weight and energy metabolism that were 80–90% of those in gonadally intact hamsters. The role of the pineal gland in short photoperiod-induced body weight gain was examined in shampinealectomized and pinealectomized hamsters. Short photoperiod-induced increases in body weight were seen in both pinealectomized and sham-pinealectomized hamsters. Thus, pinealectomy blocks the effects of short photoperiods on reproductive function and thyroid activity, but not on body weight regulation.
These results suggest that the effects of short photoperiods on body weight and energy metabolism are mediated by multiple, redundant mechanisms involving decreases in gonadal hormone secretion, changes in melatonin secretion, and gonad- and pineal-independent changes. All of the effects of short photoperiods are exaggerated in hamsters fed a high fat diet. These changes may represent adaptive preparatory responses that enhance winter survival in Syrian hamsters. (Endocrinology 114: 492, 1984)
Footnotes
* This work was supported by Research Grants NS-10873 and AM-20785 from the NIH and Research Scientist Development Award MH-00321 from the NIMH.
Present address: Neuroendocrine Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417.
To whom all correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed.
Received June 6, 1983.
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