Growth hormone and ghrelin responses to an oral glucose load in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa and controls

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Ghrelin, published as a clinical trial.

The researchers also compared nocturnal GH secretion characteristics by deconvolutional analysis in both groups to determine differences in secretory patterns between adolescents whose GH values suppressed vs. those whose values did not after oral glucose.

Fasting levels of ghrelin, a GH secretagogue, and suppression of ghrelin with oral glucose were also determined to assess whether GH suppression or nonsuppression could be related to ghrelin values at respective time points.

Why It Was Studied

The suppression of GH levels after administration of inhibitors of GH secretion such as oral glucose is the definitive test to distinguish normal from pathological states of GH excess, such as acromegaly.

However, suppression of GH by glucose has not been well characterized in states of adaptive GH excess, such as AN, especially in a younger adolescent population with relatively higher GH levels, compared with adults.

Who Took Part

The study group was 19 girls.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, women only.

What Was Measured

The suppression of GH levels after administration of inhibitors of GH secretion such as oral glucose is the definitive test to distinguish normal from pathological states of GH excess, such as acromegaly.

However, suppression of GH by glucose has not been well characterized in states of adaptive GH excess, such as AN, especially in a younger adolescent population with relatively higher GH levels, compared with adults.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anorexia Nervosa, Case-Control Studies, Ghrelin, Glucose, Glucose Tolerance Test, Human Growth Hormone and Peptide Hormones.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Ghrelin in 19 girls.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2004 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

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