Serum leptin and ghrelin levels in active and inactive acromegalic patients during an oral glucose tolerance test

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this clinical trial publication.

Ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH) secretion.

This prospective cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the influence of GH excess on leptin and ghrelin levels at baseline and after glucose load in a large group of acromegalic patients.

Who Took Part

The study group was 25 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Leptin, ghrelin, GH, glucose and insulin concentrations were measured during a 3 h OGTT in 17 active, 25 inactive patients without medication (inact) and 8 inactive patients treated successfully with somatostatin analogues (inact-SA).

How the Study Was Run

Leptin concentration was measured using an in-house immunofluorometric assay, total serum ghrelin by a commercially available radioimmunoassay.

Leptin was corrected for BMI.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acromegaly, Body Mass Index, Cross-Sectional Studies, Ghrelin, Glucose Tolerance Test and Leptin.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Ghrelin in 25 patients.

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.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2009 (Experimental and clinical endocrinology & diabetes : official journal, German Society of Endocrinology [and] German Diabetes Association), a journal based in Germany.

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