Estrogen-like potentiation of ghrelin-stimulated GH secretion by fulvestrant, a putatively selective ER antagonist, in postmenopausal women

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin and GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that low concentrations of endogenous E2 after menopause continue to drive GH secretion.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 24 women were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

The participants were 24 postmenopausal women (aged 50-77 years with body mass index of 19-32 kg/m(2)).

This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-cohort treatment study with placebo (PL) (n = 14) or the antiestrogen fulvestrant (FUL) (n = 10) for 3 weeks, followed by infusion of l-arginine with saline, GHRH, ghrelin, or both peptide secretagogues.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Ghrelin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the women and researchers unaware of who received Ghrelin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Ghrelin group a baseline to be compared against.

The Ghrelin group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

The methods mention a period of 3 weeks.

The study was performed at the Mayo Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arginine, Cohort Studies, Drug Synergism, Estradiol, Estrogen Antagonists, Estrogens and Fulvestrant.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Ghrelin and GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone) in 24 women over 3 weeks.

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 2014 (The Journal of clinical 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.