Naloxone-induced Septal Neuromodulation of Hoarding Behavior in Male Wistar Rats

Abstract

Abstract Background: Advances have been made in recognizing the neural mechanisms controlling ingestive behavior and maintaining energy balance. The interlinkage between opiate pathways, hoarding behavior, and body weight homeostasis suggests that a malfunction of the opioidergic brain may well have a role in the pathophysiology of obesity. The potential of opioid antagonists to influence food hoarding, a type of appetitive ingestive behavior, needs to be explored. Hence, this study was undertaken with the aim of assessing the effect of naloxone as a septal neuromodulator in the hoarding behavior of laboratory rats. Materials and Methods: Stereotaxic techniques were implemented on 20 adult male Wistar rats. For the experimental group (n = 10), naloxone was injected into the septal area. For the control group (n = 10), 0.9% of normal saline was injected into the septal region. Hoarding scores before and after the administration of the drugs were noted and statistically analyzed. Results: Naloxone showed a significant decrease (P < 0.001) in the food-hoarding scores (6.6 ± 4.2) as compared to baseline-hoarding scores (41.5 ± 14.39). However, the hoarding scores in the control group did not depict any significant change when measured before and after instillation of 0.9% normal saline. Conclusion: Intraseptal naloxone has modulatory activity in the septal network with inhibitory influence upon hoarding behavior.