Ghrelin activation and neuropeptide Y elevation in response to medium chain triglyceride administration in anorexia nervosa patients

What Was Tested

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

Ghrelin requires modification by medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) to exert its physiological effects.

In this study, the researchers investigated ghrelin activation and the resulting physiological changes following MCT administration.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, young adults and adults, women only.

Thirty participants were selected from among inpatients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN).

Physical factors such as body weight and composition, as well as levels of nutrition-related serum factors such as acylated (active form) and desacyl (inactive form) ghrelin, leptin, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor, and neuropeptide Y (NPY) were measured at weeks 0, 2, 4, and 6 of the treatment protocol.

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

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anorexia Nervosa, Biomarkers, Body Composition, Enteral Nutrition, Ghrelin, Japan and Neuropeptide Y.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Activation and Medium-chain triglycerides.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Ghrelin and Neuropeptide Y.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2017 (Clinical nutrition ESPEN), a journal based in England.

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