Effect of three-day food restriction in rats / Shazwani Shaharuddin

Malnutrition is a common problem in the hospital setting. Once in the hospital, many patients lose weight due to factors such as poor appetite, concurrent illness, inadequate intake due to specific feeding difficulties and some are being kept ‘nil by mouth’ for investigations. It has been shown that deterioration can be prevented with proper monitoring. Malnutrition is still poorly recognized in hospital and has serious consequences, both for the individual patient and the consumption of medical resources. This study aimed to evaluate the food restriction effects on rats for three days. Eight rats were divided into 2 groups, food restriction group and control group. The food restriction group was not given food for 72 hours. Blood from the rats were withdrawn at time 0 from the tail and after 72 hours by cardiac puncture. Hematocrit level, hemoglobin concentration, total red blood cell, mean cell hemoglobin, mean cell volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were analyzed. Other parameters such as blood glucose, blood protein and body weight were also observed. Result showed that there was an increase in total red blood cell, hemoglobin, and hematocrit level in food restriction group and the difference was significant. There was also an increase in the MCV, MCH, MCHC level but the changes were not significant. On the other hand, there was a decreased in total white blood cell, body weight, and blood glucose level in food restriction group and the difference was significant. There was also a decrease in plasma protein but the difference was not significant. All these observations showed that short term starvation produced important changes in body compositions and metabolisms. These findings are important in understanding the processes associated with starvation.