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Methylphenidate (MPH) is the active ingredient in Ritalin, although effective in treating ofthe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), its neurostimulation action is attractiveamong students in order to increase the focus or improving student performance. In context ofthe Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept, states that insults incritical phases of development, as the peripubertal period, may program the organism todysfunctions in adulthood. The aim of this work was to investigate the impact of peripubertalMPH exposure on learning and retrograde memory in adult rats. Male Wistar rats wereexposed to MPH (5 mg/kg) from post-natal day (PN) 30 until PN60 (MPH). Control animalsreceived 0.9% saline (Sal). At PN60, learning was evaluated true 10 days in an eight-armelevated maze and at PN120 retrograde memory. At PN60, MPH group showed a delay of61% in the latency, an increase of 100% in the number of errors and 200% in the number ofrepetition errors when compared to the Sal group, until the day 5 of learning period (p=0.004).After the washout period, at PN120, the MPH group showed an increase of 37% in thelatency, 49% in the number of errors of reference and 600% in the number of repetition errorscompared with the Sal group (p=0.001, p=0.004 and p=0.01). Exposure to MPH duringperipubertal phase decreases learning and memory in adult male Wistar rats.

Under- or overnutrition, during critical periods of development, lead to the development ofobesity and cardiometabolic dysfunction later in life in rats that have been programmed forthe development of metabolic dysfunction in a litter reduction model. On day 1, all litters arestandardized to 9 pups per dam and on day 3 after birth, litters were adjusted to 3 pups perdam in the small litter group (SL) and the NL group remained with 9 animals. At 70 days ofage, the animals were separated into 2 new groups: Saline (SAL) and Metformin (MET). For12 days, the NL and SL animals were treated daily with saline, giving rise to the NL-SAL andSL-SAL groups, or were treated with Met 100mg/kg/day, giving rise to the NL-MET and SL-MET groups. The treatment ended at 82 days of age and the animals were taken up to 142days of life. Body weight remained significantly higher in SL compared to NL animals up to142 days (p

Childhood obesity has become a public health concern, as it leads to cardiometabolicdisorders. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept shows thatinsults in critical windows of development can program the individual for both health anddisease. In the neonatal supernutrition model, known as small litter (SL), the litter is reducedto 3 animals per dam, mimicking obesity, while the normal litter (NL) control animals haveonly 9 animals per dam. The period of adolescence in SL animals is still little explored, it isknown that in this phase there are many hormonal changes, but it is still not known how thebehavior is in relation to glycemia, so our objective was to evaluate glycemia during thetolerance test oral glucose in NL and SL animals during adolescence. It is observed that theNL and SL animals show no difference in glucose tolerance at 45 and 60 days. However, bothgroups are glucose intolerant when compared to their respective controls in adult life. Weconclude that there is glucose intolerance during adolescence regardless of the nutritionalinsult.

Each stage (early, middle and late) of lactation is a critical period during which maternalmalnutritional can negatively effects on the offspring's body development. We investigatedthe effects of a maternal high fat diet (HF) during the different stages of lactation on bodyweight of male offspring at weaning. Female Wistar rats were fed either a HF diet only duringthe first week (HF1-7 group), second week (HF7-14 group), third week (HF14-21 group) andthroughout lactation (group HF1-21) or standard diet during all lactation. Biometricparameters of dams and male offspring were evaluated. HF fed dams did not have a differencein body weight, food intake and fat pad compared with the control dams. Regarding theoffspring, a higher final body weight was observed in males from the HF7-14 and HF14-21and HF21 groups compared to the control. There was an increase in retroperitoneal andmesenteric fat in HF21 and HF14-21 compared with control groups. Higher perigonadal fatpat was only observed in HF21. Consumption of maternal HF diet throughout lactation causeshigh body weight in male offspring. Interestingly, each isolated phase also causes importantbody weight accumulation, mainly the second and third week.

Sucralose (SCL) is one of the most widely used edulcorants in the world, including bychildren and adolescents, but its effects on metabolic programming are not sufficient andconclusive. In this study we evaluated whether ingestion of SCL or sucrose (SUC) by youngrats interferes with metabolic parameters in the adult rat. We used 21-day-old male wistarrats, which received pure water (control) or water added SUC or SCL, until 60 days of age.When they reached 90 days of age, half of the animals were fed a high fat diet (HFD). Theanimals were euthanized at 120 days of age. When fed only the standard diet, SUC intake inthe young phase caused significant (p