Ghrelin, an endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, was firstly identified from rat stomach and cloned in rats and humans. Recently, ghrelin has been shown to participate in cardiovascular and sympathic regulations and play a useful role in some cardiovascular diseases including heart failure, myocardial infarction and pulmonary hypertension. We investigated the fasting ...

Ghrelin, des-acyl ghrelin, and obestatin are derived from a common prohormone, preproghrelin by posttranslational processing, originating from endocrine cells in the stomach. To examine the regulatory roles of these peptides, we applied the manometric measurement of gastrointestinal motility in freely moving conscious rat or mouse model. Ghrelin exerts stimulatory effects on the motility of ant...

Aging is associated with severe thermogenic impairment, which contributes to obesity and diabetes in aging. We previously reported that ablation of the ghrelin receptor, growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS‐R), attenuates age‐associated obesity and insulin resistance. Ghrelin and obestatin are derived from the same preproghrelin gene. Here we showed that in brown adipocytes, ghrelin decrea...

BACKGROUND Ghrelin and obestatin are peptides of the gut-brain axis affecting appetite and gastrointestinal motility. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional, case-control study to determine pre- and postprandial serum levels of total ghrelin and obestatin along with gastric emptying scintigraphy in children with symptoms suggestive of delayed gastric emptying time (GET), not attributable to a...

T he preproghrelin gene (chromosome 3p26-p25) encodes two active peptides, ghrelin and obestatin. Both peptides are involved in the body energy homeostasis. Obestatin, a 23-amino-acid polypeptide, has the opposite effect to ghrelin, promoting reduced food intake and decreasing body weight (1). Low obestatin levels potentiate the insulin response to glucose, while high obestatin concentration in...

It has been recently proposed that obestatin, a peptide encoded by the ghrelin gene, reduces food intake by activating the orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR39. To gain further insights into the role of GPR39 in body weight homeostasis, we characterized the phenotype of mice with targeted disruption of the GPR39 gene. Body weight, adiposity, and food intake were found to be similar between G...

Over the past decade, our knowledge of how homeostatic systems regulate food intake and body weight has increased with the discovery of circulating peptides such as leptin, acyl ghrelin, des-acyl ghrelin and obestatin. These hormones regulate the appetite and food intake by sending signals to the brain regarding the body's nutritional status. The purpose of this study was to investigate the res...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that administration of obestatin exhibits a protective effect in the pancreas, attenuating the development of acute pancreatitis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of obestatin administration on the healing of chronic gastric ulcers. MATERIAL/METHODS Chronic gastric ulcers were induced in rats by 100% acetic acid applied to th...

BACKGROUND Recent studies suggest that adipose tissue hormones are involved in the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). The role of leptin, obestatin and apelin still needs to be established. MATERIAL/METHODS Ten patients with newly diagnosed OSAS (AHI >10/h and ESS >10 points) were enrolled in the study as well as ten healthy volunteers as controls. All underwent measure...