Ghrelin, metabolic and hormonal parameters during OGTT in patients with obesity and anorexia nervosa

Abstract

Anorexia and obesity are the opposite states of body weight and body fat, but it is not known that regulating mechanisms of body weight are the same or not? Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high levels, obesity with low levels of ghrelin. The most effective suppressor of ghrelin is the glucose load, but the regulating role of glucose or insulin in – ghrelin suppression is questionable. This study examined the associations of ghrelin levels with leptin, glucose, insulin and growth hormone (GH) during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in anorectic, overweight and normal females. Participants included overweight-OW (n = 11), anorexia nervosa-AN (n = 14) and normal weight-NW (n = 10) females. The fall in serum ghrelin at 30 min during OGTT was significantly lower in the OW group than in other groups (p = 0.026). In AN subjects, significant correlation has been found between ghrelin and GH during the OGTT (p = 0.0001). In OW and NW subjects, the multiple regression analysis showed that the glucose was the only independent predictor of ghrelin during the OGTT (OW, p = 0.003; NW, p = 0,004). Ghrelin secretion during OGTT may be controlled by different mechanisms in individuals with anorexia nervosa than in overweight individuals.

Keywords

Ghrelin - obesity - anorexia nervosa