Feeding after a single insulin injection disrupted by puromycin but not actinomycin

At doses which do not reduce food intake elicited by prior food deprivation, puromycin (12 mg/kg) and cycloheximide (0.5 mg/kg) reduce the food intake elicited from the rat by subcutaneous injection of solutions of bovine crystalline insulin (15–20 units/kg). Counteraction of hypoglycaemia by puromycin is not the cause of its blockade of insulin-induced feeding. The water intake evoked by insulin injection is, in contrast, not more sensitive to these drugs than is drinking after deprivation. Food intakes after insulin injection or after food deprivation are not differentially disrupted by actinomycin D (0.03–0.5 mg/kg) or 6-dimethylaminopurine (12 mg/kg). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that some metabolic adaptation to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia mediates the elicitation of feeding. They suggest that this effect of insulin depends on protein synthesis but is not mediated by ribonucleic acid synthesis dependent on deoxyribonucleic acid.