Chronic ICV enterostatin preferentially reduced fat intake and lowered body weight

The pancreatic peptide enterostatin will acutely reduce fat intake in rats provided a choice of diets. Chronic ICV infusions of enterostatin suppress the intake of high fat diet. However, the effects of chronic ICV enterostatin on diet choice has not previously been studied. To investigate this, enterostatin (0.5 microgram/h) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was infused for 9 days into the lateral ventricle of rats adapted to a two-choice high-fat (HF) and low-fat (LF) diet regime. Enterostatin reduced intake of HF diet with the maximum depression at day 4, but there was no compensatory increase in LF intake. The body weight of enterostatin-infused rats declined. This was associated with a reduction in fat pad and liver weights compared to the CSF-infused control rats. Serum triglycerides and insulin were decreased and corticosterone was elevated in enterostatin-infused rats. The data show that enterostatin will chronically reduce fat intake and body weight and suggest that enterostatin may attenuate the appetite for fat.