In laboratory animals and in human, centrally penetrant ghrelin receptor agonists, given systemically or orally, cause defecation. Animal studies show that the effect is due to activation of ghrelin receptors in the spinal lumbosacral defecation centers. However, it is not known whether there is a physiological role of ghrelin or the ghrelin receptor in the control of defecation. Using immunohi...

Ghrelin, a circulating growth hormone-releasing peptide derived from the stomach, stimulates food intake. The lowest systemically effective orexigenic dose of ghrelin was investigated and the resulting plasma ghrelin concentration was compared with that during fasting. The lowest dose of ghrelin that produced a significant stimulation of feeding after intraperitoneal injection was 1 nmol. The p...

BACKGROUND Plasma ghrelin exerts widespread bioactivities. Although it is effectively removed from the blood by a single course of haemodialysis, peritoneal clearance of ghrelin is uncertain. Our study aimed to determine (i) whether there is a correlation between plasma ghrelin levels and characteristics of peritoneal ghrelin clearance, and (ii) whether plasma ghrelin levels significantly impac...

Ghrelin is a growth hormone-releasing peptide that also displays orexigenic activity. Since serine-3 acylation with octanoylate (octanoylation) is essential for the orexigenic activity of ghrelin, suppression of octanoylation could lead to amelioration or prevention of obesity. To enable the exploration of inhibitors of octanoylated ghrelin production, we developed a cell-based assay system usi...

Ghrelin is a novel hormone that possesses growth hormone (GH)-releasing, cardiovascular, and metabolic activities. Ghrelin is a unique acylated polypeptide, and the naked peptide, desacyl ghrelin, does not have the activity. This study examines plasma ghrelin concentrations in 41 patients with mild to severe renal diseases. Two kinds of radioimmunoassays were used: amino-terminal immunoreactivi...

Gastrectomy reduces food intake and body weight (BW) hampering recovery of physical conditions. It also reduces plasma levels of stomach-derived orexigenic ghrelin. This study explored changes in orexigenic ghrelin system in rats receiving total gastrectomy with Billroth II (B-II) or Roux-en-Y (R-Y) method. Feeding and BW were reduced by gastrectomy and subsequently recovered to a greater exten...

Ghrelin, an endogenous ligand of the GH (growth hormone) secretagogue receptor, influences many metabolic processes including GH secretion, food intake, energy balance, insulin secretion and adipogenesis. Although ghrelin exhibits a variety of biological functions, the mechanism by which ghrelin expression is regulated is unknown. Ghrelin is expressed in the gastrointestinal tract, predominantl...

OBJECTIVES Ghrelin has recently been isolated from rat and human stomach as an endogenous ligand for the growth hormone (GH) secretagog receptor. Using beagle dogs, we investigated the distribution of ghrelin in the stomach and its possible role. METHODS We examined: (i) GH release in response to ghrelin injection (0.5 or 5 microg/kg, i.v.), (ii) gastric localization of ghrelin-immunostained ...

We have identified ghrelin from the stomach of rainbow trout. Four isoforms of ghrelin peptide were isolated: the C-terminal amidated type of rainbow trout ghrelin (rt ghrelin) composed of 24 amino acids (GSSFLSPSQKPQVRQGKGKPPRV-amide) is a basic form; des-VRQ-rt ghrelin, which deleted three amino acids (V13R14Q15) from rt ghrelin; and further two types of rt ghrelin that retained the glycine r...

Ghrelin is the recently discovered endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor. This receptor had previously been characterized based on the stimulatory effect of synthetic peptides, enkephalin analogues, on growth hormone secretion by pituitary somatotrophs. Surprisingly, ghrelin is most abundant in the stomach, suggesting that it may have effects beyond the stimulation of g...