New chronic gastric cannula for feeding ethanol liquid diet to young and old rats

Abstract

Fifty-eight male Fischer-344 rats ages 5 and 23 mo were fed a liquid diet containing ethanol for 6 wk by means of a newly designed chronic gastric cannula that permitted maximum allowable freedom with minimum stress. Rats were weaned onto the Lieber-DeCarIi diet and fed 10 mL three times daily by bolus injection. With or without ethanol, the minimum daily intake of calories necessary to maintain body weight was determined to be approximately 150–160 kcal/kg/day for the young adult rats and 120–125 kcal/kg/day for the aged animals.