4.7 Article

Female mice are more prone to develop an addictive-like phenotype for sugar consumption

Journal

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86797-9

Keywords

-

Funding

  1. BMBF [FKZ: 01ZX1909]
  2. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [TRR265]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study reveals that female mice are more vulnerable to the addictive properties of sugar than male mice, showing higher binge and long-term, excessive drinking, a more pronounced relapse-like drinking following deprivation, as well as higher persistence and motivation for sugar. No sex differences were seen in a compulsivity test or reward sensitivity following extended sugar consumption.
The concept of sugar addiction is gaining increasing attention in both the lay media and scientific literature. However, the concept of sugar addiction is controversial and only a few studies to date have attempted to determine the addictive properties of sugar using rigorous scientific criteria. Here we set out to systematically test the addictive properties of sugar in male and female mice using established paradigms and models from the drug addiction field. Male and female C57BL/6N (8-10 weeks old) were evaluated in 4 experimental procedures to study the addictive properties of sugar: (i) a drinking in the dark (DID) procedure to model sugar binging; (ii) a long-term free choice home cage drinking procedure measuring the sugar deprivation effect (SDE) following an abstinence phase; (iii) a long-term operant sugar self-administration with persistence, motivation and compulsivity measures and (iv) intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS). Female mice were more vulnerable to the addictive properties of sugar than male mice, showing higher binge and long-term, excessive drinking, a more pronounced relapse-like drinking following deprivation, and higher persistence and motivation for sugar. No sex differences were seen in a compulsivity test or reward sensitivity measured using ICSS following extended sugar consumption. This study demonstrates the occurrence of an addictive-like phenotype for sugar in male and female mice, similar to drugs of abuse, and suggests sex-dependent differences in the development of sugar addiction.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available