Effects of ghrelin receptor agonist, relamorelin, on gastric motor functions and satiation in healthy volunteers

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Ghrelin and Relamorelin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The ghrelin receptor agonist, relamorelin, accelerates gastric emptying in patients with diabetic gastroparesis.

Who Took Part

The study group was 16 volunteers.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

Results were normally distributed and the two treatment groups were compared using t-test.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

Some volunteers received a placebo instead of Ghrelin, giving a reference point.

Primary endpoints were: fasting and postprandial gastric volumes, distal antral phasic pressure activity (number of contractions, mean amplitude, and MI), and maximum tolerated volume.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Healthy Volunteers, Manometry, Oligopeptides, Pyloric Antrum, Receptors, Ghrelin and Satiation.

The authors tagged it with the keywords gastric accommodation, gastric motility, gastroparesis and ghrelin receptor agonist.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Ghrelin and Relamorelin in 16 volunteers.

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.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (Neurogastroenterology and motility), a journal based in England.

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