Ghrelin is a gastric peptide hormone, discovered as being the endogenous ligand of growth hormone secretagogue receptor. Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid peptide presenting a unique n-octanoylation modification on its serine in position 3, catalyzed by ghrelin O-acyl transferase. Ghrelin is mainly produced by a subset of stomach cells and also by the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and other tissues. Tr...

OBJECTIVE Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients are abdominally obese and are at increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome. Low adiponectin and ghrelin levels in PCOS patients could be caused by insulin resistance as well as high testosterone levels. DESIGN Adiponectin and ghrelin levels were evaluated in 51 hirsute PCOS patients referred to the outpatient clinic of an academic,...

The plasma ghrelin has been reported to be elevated in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and modulated by insulin. It was hypothesized that insulin might have a more pronounced effect on reducing plasma ghrelin in PWS patients, which would influence appetite. This study investigated the degree of ghrelin suppression using an euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp in children with PWS (n=6) and normal chil...

Cancer cachexia (CC) is a multifactorial disease characterized by decreased food intake and loss of body weight due to reduced musculature with or without loss of fat mass. Patients with gastric cancer have a high incidence of cachexia. We previously established a novel CC rat model induced by human gastric cancer-derived 85As2 cells in order to examine the pathophysiology of CC and identify po...

The hypothalamus is the principal regulator of body weight and energy balance. It modulates both energy intake and energy expenditure by sensing the energy status of the body through neural inputs from the periphery as well as direct humoral inputs. Leptin, an adipokine, is one of the humoral factors responsible for alerting the hypothalamus that enough energy is stored in the periphery. Plasma...

Ghrelin, a gut-brain peptide, is best known for its role in the stimulation of feeding and growth hormone release. In the brain, orexin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), and ghrelin are parts of a food intake regulatory circuit. Orexin and NPY are also implicated in maintaining wakefulness. Previous experiments in our laboratory revealed that intracerebroventricular injections of ghrelin induce wakefulnes...

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BACKGROUND Ghrelin, an orexigenic gut hormone secreted primarily from the stomach, is involved in energy homeostasis. However, little data is available regarding its response to energy surplus and the development of human obesity. OBJECTIVE The present study investigated the response of circulating acylated ghrelin to a 7-day positive energy challenge. DESIGN A total of 68 healthy young men...

Ghrelin plays key roles in energy homeostasis by central and peripheral actions that include effects on insulin signalling pathways in liver. Insulin is an important inhibitor of production by hepatocytes of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) which has an endocrine role to inhibit IGF availability. The effects of ghrelin, insulin, an AMPK activator, and an AMPK inhibitor on ...

Ghrelin is a stomach-derived peptide that has growth hormone-stimulating and orexigenic activities. Although there have been several reports of ghrelinoma cases, only a few cases have elevated circulating ghrelin levels, hampering the investigation of pathophysiological features of ghrelinoma and chronic effects of ghrelin excess. Furthermore, standard transgenic technique has resulted in desac...