Nocturnal ghrelin pulsatility and response to growth hormone secretagogues in healthy men

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Ghrelin and GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone).

To investigate the regulation of ghrelin secretion and pulsatility, the researchers performed overnight ghrelin and GH sampling every 20 min for 12 h in eight healthy male subjects [age 37 +/- 5 (SD) years old, body mass index 27.2 +/- 2.9 kg/m2].

Simultaneous GH and ghrelin levels were assessed to determine the relatedness and synchronicity between these two hormones in the fasted state during the overnight period of maximal endogenous GH secretion.

Pulsatility analyses were performed to determine simultaneous hormonal dynamics and investigate the relationship between GH and ghrelin by use of cross-approximate entropy (X-ApEn) analyses.

Why It Was Studied

The physiological importance of endogenous ghrelin in the regulation of growth hormone (GH) secretion is still unknown.

The mean normalized ghrelin entropy (ApEn) was 0.93 +/- 0.09, indicating regularity in ghrelin hormone secretion.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

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

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Arginine, Circadian Rhythm, Drug Combinations, Fasting, Ghrelin, Growth Hormone and Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Ghrelin and GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone).

The publication is from 2004 (American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page and the GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.