Effects of insulin on feeding in hypophysectomised and adrenal demedullated rats

Hypophysectomized rats show no greater deficit in insulin-induced feeding than they show in insulin-induced drinking or in feeding or drinking induced by food deprivation. Bilaterally adrenal demedullated rats show normal insulin-induced drinking, but their insulin- induced feeding is delayed for an hour or more after that of intact rats. It is concluded that pituitary hormones are not specifically involved in the mechanism by which a single injection of insulin elicits eating, but that secretion of epinephrine in response to hypoglycemia in intact rats may augment other actions of injected insulin to accelerate the dissipation of processes maintaining satiey and so advance the start of the next meal.