Type of food available during recovery from acute restraint stress affects plasma levels of total ghrelin but not plasma corticosterone in male rats: A pilot study

Exposure to a stressor can alter energy intake, potentially resulting in overall changes to body weight. However, our understanding of the relationship between stress and food intake remains incomplete. In these studies, we evaluated whether the type of food available for consumption after stress exposure may be an important determinant of plasma corticosterone (CORT) and ghrelin levels after restraint stress in male rats. Male rats were exposed to 1 h restraint stress or handling control, then given access to a test food to assess how access to different types of food impacted plasma CORT and ghrelin post-stressor. Our results indicated that the type of test food did not impact the plasma CORT response after restraint stress. In contrast, plasma ghrelin levels were differentially altered by the type of test food available in the experiment. These findings suggest the importance of considering the type of test food available in studies examining interactions between stress and feeding, and may also point to a crucial role of the timing of prior palatable food access in such experiments.