Jacek Owczarek, Piotr Szcześniak, Daria Orszulak-Michalak

Możliwość wykorzystania greliny w farmakoterapii otyłości, anoreksji oraz cukrzycy
2006-09-01

Possibilities of ghrelin use in therapy of obesity, anorexia and diabetes. Ghrelin, a hormone long considered a key player in obesity, may instead take a major role in maintaining the balance between insulin and glucose and the development of diabetes. Chronic ghrelin administration durably stimulates food intake and suppresses energy expenditure, increasing body weight, whereas acute ghrelin blockade does the opposite. Circulating ghrelin levels increase with weight loss resulting from low-calorie diets, chronic exercise cancer anorexia, cardiac or hepatic cachexia, gastric banding and anorexia nervosa. Experimental studies have suggested that ghrelin plays a role in glucose homeostasis and the regulation of the blood pressure. We therefore assessede the hypothesis that a low ghrelin concentration may be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. We conclude that low ghrelin is independently associated with type 2 diabetes insulin concentration, insulin resistance and elevated BP. Therefore it might have some role in the etiology of type 2 diabetes and the regulation of BP. The ghrelin Arg 51 Gln mutation is associated with low plasma ghrelin concentrations.