Intragastric fat self-administration is impaired in GPR40/120 double knockout mice

Mice acquire strong preferences for flavors paired with intragastric (IG) fat infusions. This IG fat conditioning is attenuated in double knockout (DoKO) mice missing GPR40 and GPR120 fatty acid receptors. Here we determined if GPR40/120 DoKO mice are also impaired in IG fat self-administration in an operant lick task. In daily 1-h sessions the mice were trained with a sipper spout that contained dry food pellets; licks on the spout triggered infusions of IG fat (Intralipid). The training sessions were followed by test sessions with an empty spout. GPR40/120 DoKO mice self-infused more 20% fat than wild type (WT) C57BL/6 mice in training with a food-baited spout (2.4 vs. 2.0 kcal/h) but self-infused less 20% fat than WT mice in empty spout tests (1.2 vs. 1.7 kcal/h). The DoKO mice also self-infused less 5% fat than WT mice (0.6 vs. 1.3 kcal/h) although both groups emitted more licks for 5% fat than 20% fat. The DoKO and WT mice did not differ, however, in their self-infusion of 12.5% glucose (1.5 vs. 1.6 kcal/h), which is isocaloric to 5% fat. A second 5% IL test showed that the DoKO mice reverted to a reduced self-infusion compared to WT mice. When the infusion was shifted to water, WT mice reduced licking in the first extinction session, whereas DoKO mice were less sensitive to the absence of infused fat. Our results indicate that post-oral GPR40/120 signaling is not required to process IG fat infusions in food-baited spout training sessions but contributes to post-oral fat reinforcement in empty spout tests and flavor conditioning tests.