Thursday 15 February 2007
Ghrelin injections aid metabolic imbalances in PCOS
Source: Fertility and Sterility 2007; Advance online publication
Assessing the effects of exogenous ghrelin administration in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
Injection of the peptide ghrelin effectively combats the growth hormone (GH) secretion defect and glucoinsulinemic changes in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), researchers report.
The GH stimulant ghrelin plays a key role in energy balance and is of significant interest for the study of PCOS, where obesity and hyperinsulinemia affect more than half of sufferers, state Maurizio Guido, from the Universitą Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy, and colleagues.
To explore the role of ghrelin in PCOS, they compared the impact of intravenous 1 microg/kg ghrelin administration in 20 obese women with PCOS, and 15 obese women without PCOS, who served as controls.
Examinations revealed significantly lower levels of the peptide in patients with PCOS compared with controls, at 100 fmol/ml versus 162 fmol/ml.
Ghrelin administration also induced a significant elevation in levels of plasma glucose and a significant decrease in insulin circulating concentrations in all women.
Administration of ghrelin markedly enhanced GH levels in both groups, by 1889 ng/ml and 1640 ng/ml per 90 minutes, respectively.
Of note, the glycemia-enhancing effect reached a peak 30 minutes after ghrelin administration in women with PCOS and in controls, at 82 mg/dL and 85 mg/dL.
"In the complex combination of the endocrine-metabolic alterations of PCOS, ghrelin may represent the link between glucoinsulinemic imbalance and the profound derangement of GH secretion," conclude the team.
Posted: 07 February 2007
http://www.orgyn.com/en/news/2007/We...91280336689815
Ghrelin injections aid metabolic imbalances in PCOS 
