Binge eating in pre-clinical models

Abstract

Obesity is a globally widespread disease. Approximately 35% of world population has the problem of inappropriate body weight due to sedentary lifestyle, excessive food consumption and the lack of physical activity. In the course of many years, several pharmacological anti-obesity drugs have been discovered. Most of them, however, possess severe side effects. Recent findings suggest that disturbed functioning of the reward system can be involved in the development of obesity. The data coming from clinical and animal studies provide new evidence that links excessive food consumption with compulsive behavior that can lead to binge eating disease occurrence. In this review we discuss most commonly used animal models of binge eating such as restriction/refeeding, limited access and stress schedule model, and related to them neurobiological findings as well. We also present new, anti-obesity drugs, which are characterized by central mechanism of action.

A model of emotional stress‐induced binge eating in female mice with no history of food restriction

“…Females from the ad libitum groups displayed a compulsive‐like phenotype toward highly palatable food once it was made available for consumption following frustration stress, as evident from the large amount of food consumed (around 1.5 g, which is more than half their daily chow intake) in only 15 minutes. The large amount of palatable food consumed within a short period of time is 72% higher than control animals and is reminiscent of an acute emotional binge, lending face and construct validity to this model . It should be noted that 2 cycles of intermittent access to the highly palatable food was required in order to see this effect with no differences being observed after one cycle.…”

“…The large amount of palatable food consumed within a short period of time is 72% higher than control animals and is reminiscent of an acute emotional binge, lending face and construct validity to this model. 1,[29][30][31][32] It should be noted that 2 cycles of intermittent access to the highly palatable food was required in order to see this effect with no differences being observed after one cycle. This observation supports the longer protocol chosen by Cifani et al where multiple cycles of intermittent access are employed.…”

“…These data are in accordance with the human literature demonstrating that women respond differently to stress-related bingeing which can be partly attributed to factors such as the rewarding effects of highly palatable food consumption. Compared with males, females have been reported to be more motivated to obtain food rewards (especially sugary rewards) in both animal models 31,40 and humans, 32 where in humans this is more prevalent during the luteal phase. 41,42 Our findings support the concept that females may exhibit distinct behaviors toward highly palatable food and present with bingeing episodes independently of homeostatic need when compared with males.…”

Are loss of control while eating and overeating valid constructs? A critical review of the literature

“…However, given the relevance of binge eating constructs to eating disorders classification, studies conducted in eating disordered samples are also included. Although analogue studies have been developed to approximate binge eating in animals , these studies were beyond the scope of this review and thus were not included.…”

DBS for Obesity

“…In contrast to the hypothalamus, the NAc has been suggested to play a role in rewarding aspects of food intake and compulsive feeding. Some of the evidence suggesting an involvement of the NAc in the pathophysiology of obesity includes the following: the pattern of compulsive eating shown in some forms of clinical and preclinical obesity often resembles that of drug addiction [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Food craving and the anticipation of food reward in preclinical models are associated with changes in D2 striatal receptors [ 31 ].…”