Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

5-31-1988

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor

Stanley S. Reisman

Second Advisor

Peter Engler

Third Advisor

W. H. Warren Ball

Fourth Advisor

L. Arthur Campfield

Abstract

A method has been developed that can monitor and control the meal initiation of rats. The goal of studying meal initiation is to find a mechanism of control of the diet, based upon the assumption that the body weight is closely related to feeding behavior. If the feeding behavior can be controlled, then the body weight can be controlled. The experimental system has two major functions: (1) Continuous measurement and recording of the blood glucose concentration and meal pattern of rats. (2) Automatic or manual infusing of glucose or other substances to the rats intravenously.

For blood glucose concentration and meal pattern recording, the measurement and the recording are on-line and continuous. The meal pattern recording can be done in up to 8 chambers and can last 2 days. For blood glucose concentration control of the rats, the system can be used to infuse test substances to the rats automatically. For example, the blood glucose concentration is controlled by infusing glucose either with keyboard control or with predetermined computer controlled glucose infusion. The glucose infusion is done by a syringe with a step motor which is controlled by the computer.

An IBM PC/AT system is used to record the blood glucose concentration and meal pattern, and to control and perform the glucose infusion. Another IBM PC system is used to record the multi-chamber meal patterns. The TURBO BASIC computer language is used as the programming language in the system.

The experiments are based on the glucostatic theory which suggests that meal initiation is caused by decreased glucose uptake and utilization. In experiments that using a beaker filled with glucose solution to simulate a rat, water and glucose were used to simulate the Pre-meal blood glucose decline (PBGD) of rats. The algorithms of glucose concentration decline detection, pre-determined glucose infusion, keyboard-controlled glucose infusion and feedback controlled glucose infusion were first tested on the beaker system. In the rat experiments which followed insulin was infused to modulate the PBGD.

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