Glucose appetition in C57BL/6J mice: Influence of nonnutritive sweetener experience, food deprivation state and sex differences

In addition to its sweet taste, glucose has potent and rapid postoral actions (appetition) that enhance its reward value. This has been demonstrated by the experience-induced preference for glucose over initially preferred nonnutritive sweetener solutions in 24-h choice tests. However, some sweetener solutions (e.g., 0.8% sucralose) have inhibitory postoral actions that may exaggerate glucose appetition whereas others (e.g., 0.1% sucralose + 0.1% saccharin, S+S) do not. Experiment 1 revealed that food-restricted (FR) male C57BL/6J mice displayed similar rapid glucose appetition effects (stimulation of glucose licking within minutes) and conditioned flavor preferences following 1-h experience with flavored 0.8% sucralose or 0.1% S+S and 8% glucose solutions. Thus, the inhibitory effects of 0.8% sucralose observed in 24-h tests were not apparent in 1-h tests. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of food deprivation state on 1-h glucose appetition. Unlike FR female mice, ad libitum (AL) fed mice displayed no or delayed stimulation of glucose licking depending upon the training solutions used (0.1% S+S vs. 8% glucose, or 0.2% S+S vs. 16% glucose). Both AL groups, like the FR group, developed a preference for the glucose-paired flavor over the S+S paired flavor. Thus, food restriction promotes glucose appetition but is not required for a conditioned preference. Overall, male and female mice showed similar glucose appetition responses although females displayed a more rapid initial glucose response.