Patients with ischaemic heart disease or chronic heart failure show altered levels of obestatin, suggesting a role for this peptide in human heart function. We have previously demonstrated that GH secretagogues and the ghrelin gene-derived peptides, including obestatin, exert cardiovascular effects by modulating cardiac inotropism and vascular tone, and reducing cell death and contractile dysfu...

BACKGROUND Whether plasma ghrelin/obestatin levels are associated with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, subtypes of functional dyspepsia (FD), and gastric mucosal histology has not yet been established in elderly patients. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine whether plasma ghrelin and obestatin levels are related to gastric mucosal histology, H. pylori infection, and FD...

The role of the ghrelin--obestatin system in health and disease is multifaceted and new ample evidence has been recently accumulated. Ghrelin was discovered much earlier than obestatin so the biological, physiological and pathophysiological, pharmacological aspects of its activity could be studied far better than obestatin. There is no question that these hormones are not antagonists and they a...

One of the new promising therapies in treatment of diabetes mellitus is mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which have an interesting therapeutic potentiality based on their paracrine effect and transdifferentiation potentiality. Also obestatin improves the generation of functional β cells/islet-like cell clusters in vitro, suggesting implications for cell-based replacement therapy in diabetes. So th...

Peptides ghrelin, obestatin and neuropeptide Y (NPY) play an important role in regulation of energy homeostasis, the imbalance of which is associated with eating disorders anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). The changes in ghrelin, obestatin and NPY plasma levels were investigated in AN and BN patients after administration of a high-carbohydrate breakfast (1604 kJ). Eight AN women (aged 25....

Ghrelin is a 28-amino acid peptide first isolated from rat and human stomachs. Together with the recently discovered 23-amino acid obestatin, it is derived from proghrelin by posttranslational processing. Cells immunoreactive to ghrelin are widely distributed in the gastric mucosa in domestic and laboratory animals and in humans. Ghrelin plays an important role in energy homeostasis, body weigh...

The ghrelin system comprises acylated ghrelin (AG), unacylated ghrelin (UAG) and obestatin, besides the receptor for AG, the growth hormone (GH) secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHS-R1a), and the enzyme-promoting ghrelin acylation, ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT). The ghrelin peptides exert a variety of biological actions, including regulation of energy homeostasis and glucose metabolism, as wel...

OBJECTIVE Chronic inflammatory diseases are associated with altered body composition. Ghrelin has anti-inflammatory effects, and its level is altered in obesity and inflammatory diseases. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and ghrelin and obestatin levels in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). MATERIAL AND METHODS One hundred and forty-three (143) patients with BD...

BACKGROUND Three ghrelin gene-derived peptides, acyl ghrelin, des-acyl ghrelin and obestatin, are implicated in the regulation of feeding, adipogenesis and glucose metabolism, as well as gut motility. The effects of ghrelin gene-derived peptides on lower esophageal sphincter motility, however, were unknown. METHODS We investigated the influence of acyl ghrelin, des-acyl ghrelin and obestatin ...