[Effects of an anorexiant, mazindol, on metabolic abnormalities of rats with ventromedial hypothalamic lesions].

The present study investigated the effects of mazindol on the metabolic abnormalities of ventromedial hypothalamic-lesioned (VMH) rats. About 200 g female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into VMH and sham-operated rats. Two weeks later the feeding of a mazindol-containing diet (50 mg/kg) was started in half of each group. Eight weeks after mazindol treatment, rats were sacrificed, and various parameters were determined. Food intake was measured between the 4th and 5th week. In VMH-lesioned rats, mazindol decreased food intake remarkably and restored body weight, Lee Index, organ weights (liver, parametrial fat pad and lung), serum insulin, serum lipids (cholesterol, triglyceride, phospholipid and free fatty acids), serum GOT GPT, total lipid in the liver and findings of liver history to normal. Mazindol did not change these parameters, except for serum triglyceride, in sham-operated rats and had no effect on food intake. The results suggested that normalization of these abnormalities in VMH-lesioned rats depends mainly on the reduction of food intake due to overresponse to mazindol by VMH lesions.