Effects of Excessive Sucrose Intake on Aggressive Behavior and Peripheral Stress-Related Hormone and Catecholamines in BALB/c Mice during Adolescent Development.

As binge eating and unbalanced diets increase the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders, it has been noted that the increase in psychiatric disorders is also a consequence of diet. The present study examined aggressive behavior and peripheral stress-related hormone and catecholamine levels in BALB/c mice fed a high-sucrose diet during adolescent development. BALB/c mice are rarely used in research assessing the effect of diet, but were used for ethnic and personal differences and as a new experimental model. BALB/c mice were fed a diet in which all carbohydrate components were replaced with sucrose for 4 wk and were subjected to the resident-intruder and social dominance tube test. Plasma insulin, corticosterone, and catecholamine levels were also compared to mice fed a control diet. The high-sucrose diet did not alter body weight, glucose tolerance, and plasma insulin levels in BALB/c mice, indicating that the diet was resilient to obesity. Mice fed a high-sucrose diet exhibited increased aggressive behaviors in the resident-intruder test and had a significantly higher win rate in the tube test. Increases in adrenal weight and plasma corticosterone as well as noradrenaline and adrenaline levels were exhibited in mice fed a high-sucrose diet. In particular, this is the first evidence of increased social dominance and hyperplasia of the adrenal glands by a sucrose diet. Sucrose diet intake increased aggression in mice and caused elevated peripheral hormones involving the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system, indicating that this may be a central nervous system-mediated effect of excess sucrose.