RESUMO
Ingestive behaviour of control and experimental rats following 96 hours of starvation was studied. The control animals were injected normal saline intraperitoneally (I.P.) whereas the experimental animals were injected I.P. with fresh plasma obtained from well fed rats. Having been presented with food 15 minutes after the injections, the food intake (Gms +/- SEM) of control animals for the first five hours after injection was 6.00 +/- 0.44, whereas, the intake in experimental animals for the same period was 0.55 +/- 0.05. The food intake was significantly suppressed for the next three days, attaining the normal values by the 4th day. Since all the rats were starved prior to injection, all of them increased in weight during the four days of study, but the increase seen in the experimental group was much subdued. Therefore the plasma factor, suppresses not only the food intake but also the gain in body weight.