Long Term Low Salt Feeding Led to the Changes in Food Intake, Body Weight and Depressive-Like Behavior in Mice

Low salt intake is associated with depression, but the experimental evidence is not clear. Sixty adult mice were randomly divided into four groups (mild, moderate and severe salt deficiency groups and control) during the seasonal splitting from winter to spring. The mice in the control group were fed with standard ordinary diet (salt content 0.26%), while in the mild, moderate and severe groups, the mice were fed with 10%, 30% and 50% salt deficient feedstuff, lasting for approximately 3 months. The results showed that the salt content of feed was negatively correlated with the food intake and body weight of mice. The sucrose preference test found that only the mild salt deficiency group had no differ-ence between the beginning and the end of the experiment, and the other three groups in-cluding the control, showed a significant decrease. These results suggest that dietary salt content has an impact on the food intake and body weight of mice and is associated with the emergence of depressive-like behavior. Furthermore, the seasonal splitting from winter to spring may also have a differential synergistic effect on the change of depression-like behavior associated with low salt intake in mice.