Nonshivering thermogenesis in the diabetic SHR/N-cp (corpulent) rat

The effects of isoenergetic sucrose and starch-based diets on thermogenesis were investigated in young adult, male, lean and corpulent SHR/N-cp rats. Corpulent rats gained weight 1.5 times more rapidly than lean, and sucrose diets resulted in more rapid weight gains in both phenotypes. Rates of resting and of norepinephrine-stimulated oxygen consumption were similar in both groups of lean rats and in sucrose-fed corpulent rats, but were decreased in starch-fed corpulent rats. The thermic response to injected norepinephrine occurred normally in all groups. Colonic and rectal temperatures were greater in lean than in corpulent rats. Acute cold exposure (5°C) resulted in decreases in rectal but not colonic temperature in lean rats fed both diets, but resulted in lower temperatures at both sites in corpulent rats, with the greatest decreases being observed in the starch fed corpulent rats. Fifty percent of the corpulent but none of the lean rats succumbed within 24–48 hours following cold exposure. Urinary vanilmandelic acid (VMA) excretion was greater in lean than in corpulent rats, and the sucrose diet induced a greater increment in urinary VMA excretion in lean rats than in corpulent rats. These results are consistent with an impaired activation of sympathetically-mediated thermogenesis via nutritional or environmental stimuli in the corpulent genotype of the SHR/N-cp rat in concent with an economy in energy expenditure which may be contributing factors in the causation of their obese state.