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Review
. 2022 May 15;91(10):888-897.
doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.06.020. Epub 2021 Jul 3.

A Framework for Developing Translationally Relevant Animal Models of Stress-Induced Changes in Eating Behavior

Marie François  1 , Olaya Fernández-Gayol  1 , Lori M Zeltser  2
Affiliations
Review

A Framework for Developing Translationally Relevant Animal Models of Stress-Induced Changes in Eating Behavior

Marie François et al. Biol Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Stress often affects eating behaviors, leading to increased eating in some individuals and decreased eating in others. Identifying physiological and psychological factors that determine the direction of eating responses to stress has been a major goal of epidemiological and clinical studies. However, challenges of standardizing the stress exposure in humans hinder efforts to uncover the underlying mechanisms. The issue of what determines the direction of stress-induced feeding responses has not been directly addressed in animal models, but assays that combine stress with a feeding-related task are commonly used as readouts of other behaviors, such as anxiety. Sex, estrous cyclicity, circadian cyclicity, caloric restriction, palatable diets, elevated body weight, and properties of the stressors similarly influence feeding behavior in humans and rodent models. Yet, most rodent studies do not use conditions that are most relevant for studying feeding behavior in humans. This review proposes a conceptual framework for incorporating these influences to develop reproducible and translationally relevant assays to study effects of stress on food intake. Such paradigms have the potential to uncover links between emotional eating and obesity as well as to the etiology of eating disorders.

Keywords: Anhedonia; Animal models; Eating disorders; Emotional eating; Novelty suppressed feeding; Stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Sex
Numbers of publications that used males exclusively, females exclusively, or incorporated both sexes by decade.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Circadian cyclicity
Percentage of assays that evaluated food intake in the active phase (13%), the inactive phase (82%) or comparing both (5%).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Prandial state
Percentage of assays evaluating the effects of stress on food intake after a fast (58%), food-deprivation (5%) or in the fed state (37%).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Social isolation
Percentage of assays evaluating the effects of stress on food intake in singly housed animals (63%), group-housed animals (30%) or comparing both (7%).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Recommendations to increase translatability of rodent studies of stress-related eating behaviors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Publication types