Meeting Abstract
114.4 Tuesday, Jan. 7 11:00 Interactive effects of food restriction and restraint stress on stress reactivity, immune function, and energy metabolite use and storage in snakes NEUMAN-LEE, LA*; SMITH, GD; FRENCH, SS; Utah State Univ.; Utah State Univ.; Utah State Univ. lorin215@gmail.com
Snakes are a unique in the animal kingdom due to their ability to withstand long periods of food deprivation with few deleterious consequences. In many organisms food deprivation can result in the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, in animals that do not require food at regular intervals, such as snakes, this activation may not be as pronounced or necessary. It is also unclear how energy utilization decisions vary with individual stress and energy states. In the current study, we sought to determine if food deprivation, stress state, or interactions among the two resulted in altered stress reactivity, immunity, and energy metabolite use and storage in the wandering gartersnake (Thamnophis elegans). We assigned snakes into one of four treatment groups: maintenance diet/no stress, maintenance diet/stress, food deprivation/no stress, and food deprivation/stress. For six weeks, snakes were either given 10% of their body weight in food or no food at all. For the next 12 days, snakes were either left in isolation (no restraint) or removed from enclosures and placed in an opaque bag (restraint) for half an hour daily. At the end of the experiment, we conducted a stress reactivity challenge by taking a baseline blood sample, restraining the snake for 30 minutes in an opaque bag, and taking a final stress-induced blood sample. We analyzed the plasma for the glucocorticoid corticosterone, innate bactericidal ability, protein, total triglyceride, true triglyceride, and free glyceride. Our results show that food restriction and restraint both acted in similar manners on the stress reactivity, immune function, and nutrient processing. However, when exposed to both stressors, the effects were far more pronounced.
