The GH-releasing effect of ghrelin, a natural GH secretagogue, is only blunted by the infusion of exogenous somatostatin in humans

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin and Somatostatin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Ghrelin, a 28-amino-acid peptide purified from the stomach and showing a unique structure with an n-octanoyl ester at the serine 3 residue, is a natural ligand of the GH secretagogue (GHS) receptor (GHS-R).

Ghrelin strongly stimulates GH secretion in both animals and humans, showing a synergistic effect with GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) but no interaction with synthetic GHS.

However, the activity of ghrelin as well as that of non-natural GHS is not fully specific for GH; ghrelin also induces a stimulatory effect on lactotroph and corticotroph secretion, at least in humans.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Ghrelin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blood samples were taken every 15 min from -30 up to +120 min.

GH levels were assayed at each time point in all sessions; PRL, ACTH and cortisol levels were assayed after ghrelin administration alone and during SS infusion.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Analysis of Variance, Ghrelin, Growth Hormone, Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone, Hydrocortisone and Peptide Hormones.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Ghrelin and Somatostatin.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2002 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.