Unacylated ghrelin and obestatin: promising biomarkers of protein energy wasting in children with chronic kidney disease

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Ghrelin, published as a clinical trial.

Impairment in orexigenic/anorexigenic hormone balance may be key in the pathogenesis of protein energy wasting in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Measurement of ghrelin and obestatin concentrations in children with CKD would help assess the potential contribution of these hormones to uremic protein energy wasting.

Who Took Part

The study group was 42 children.

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

Acylated and unacylated ghrelin and obestatin were measured in 42 children on conservative treatment (CT), 20 children on hemodialysis, 48 pediatric renal transplant (RTx) recipients and 43 controls (CTR) (mean age 11.9, range 5-20 years).

How the Study Was Run

This was a cross-sectional case-control study.

Weight, height and bicipital, tricipital, subscapular and suprailiac folds were measured, and the body mass index-standard deviation score (BMI-SDS), percentage of fat mass and fat-free mass were calculated.

Urea and creatinine were measured and the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) calculated.

What Was Measured

Measurement of ghrelin and obestatin concentrations in children with CKD would help assess the potential contribution of these hormones to uremic protein energy wasting.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anthropometry, Biomarkers, Body Composition, Cachexia, Case-Control Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies and Energy Metabolism.

Author keywords: Children, Chronic kidney disease, Ghrelin, Obestatin and Protein energy wasting.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Ghrelin in 42 children.

Results are reported in around 9 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)), a journal based in Germany.

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