The relationship between the leptin/ghrelin ratio and meals with various macronutrient contents in men with different nutritional status: a randomized crossover study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the leptin/ghrelin ratio in a fasting state and after the intake of meals with varying macronutrient contents and to assess the possible differences between normal body weight and overweight/obese men.

Why It Was Studied

Ghrelin is a peptide that plays an important role in short-term appetite regulation, whereas leptin is a factor that controls long-term energy balance and is considered as a satiety hormone.

Who Took Part

The study group was 46 men.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

The researchers examined 46 healthy adult men (23 with normal body weight and 23 overweight/obese) aged 21-58, who were divided into two groups.

In the crossover study, participants received isocaloric (450 kcal) meals with different macronutrient contents: men from the first group received high-carbohydrate (HC) and normo-carbohydrate (NC) meals, and in the second group, participants received high-carbohydrate and high-fat (HF) meals.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and crossover study.

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

Each person switched between Ghrelin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

The ratio of leptin/ghrelin levels was calculated from leptin and total ghrelin serum concentrations in a fasting state and 30, 60, 120, 180 and 240 min after meal intake.

One-way ANOVA and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were carried out.

The normality of the variable distribution was checked with the Shapiro-Wilk test, the homogeneity of variances was verified with the Levene test, and the false discovery rate p-value adjustment method was used.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Fasting, Ghrelin, Ideal Body Weight, Leptin, Meals, Nutrients and Nutrition Surveys.

The authors tagged it with the keywords High-carbohydrate meal, High-fat meal, Leptin/ghrelin ratio, Normal body weight men, Normo-carbohydrate meal and Overweight/obesity.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and crossover study of Ghrelin in 46 men.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (Nutrition journal), a journal based in England.

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