• Natália da Silva Lima, Elaine de Oliveira, Ana Paula Santos da Silva, Lígia de Albuquerque Maia, Egberto Gaspar de Moura, and Patricia Cristina Lisboa.
• Laboratory of Endocrine Physiology, Department of Physiological Sciences, Roberto Alcantara Gomes Biology Institute, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20551-030, Brazil.
• Life Sci. 2014 Oct 12; 115 (1-2): 29-35.

AimsWe evaluated the effects of yerba mate treatment over 30 days on body weight, food intake, hypothalamic leptin action and inflammatory profile in adult rats that were weaned early.Main MethodsTo induce early weaning, the teats of lactating rats were blocked with a bandage to interrupt milk access for the last 3 days of lactation (EW group). Control offspring had free access to milk throughout lactation. On postnatal day (PN) 150, EW offspring were subdivided into: EW and M groups were treated with water and mate aqueous solution (1g/kg BW/day, gavage), respectively, for 30 days. Control offspring received water by gavage. On PN180, offspring were killed.Key FindingsEW group presented hyperphagia; higher adiposity; higher NPY and TNF-α expression in the ARC nucleus; higher TNF-α and IL-1β levels in the adipose tissue; and lower IL-10 levels in the adipose tissue. These characteristics were normal in M group. As expected, the leptin injection in control offspring caused lower food intake. However, EW group exhibited no change in food intake after the leptin injection, indicating leptin resistance. In contrast, M group had a normal response to the leptin injection.SignificanceThirty days of mate treatment prevented the development of hyperphagia, overweight, visceral obesity and central leptin resistance. This beneficial effect on the satiety of M offspring most likely occurred after the improvement of inflammatory markers in the hypothalamus and adipocytes, which suggests that Ilex paraguariensis plays an important role in the management of obesity by acting on the inflammatory profile.Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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