Affiliations: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary | Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary | Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary
Note: [] Correspondence: Eva Lanyi, Department of Laboratory Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Pecs, H-7624 Pecs, 13, Ifjusag St., Hungary.
Tel.: +36 72 536 120; Fax: +36 72 536 121; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Anorexia and obesity are the opposite states of body weight and body
fat, but it is not known that regulating mechanisms of body weight are the same
or not? Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high levels, obesity with low
levels of ghrelin. The most effective suppressor of ghrelin is the glucose
load, but the regulating role of glucose or insulin in – ghrelin
suppression is questionable. This study examined the associations of ghrelin
levels with leptin, glucose, insulin and growth hormone (GH) during oral
glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in anorectic, overweight and normal females.
Participants included overweight-OW (n=11), anorexia nervosa-AN (n=14) and
normal weight-NW (n=10) females. The fall in serum ghrelin at 30 min during
OGTT was significantly lower in the OW group than in other groups (p=0.026). In
AN subjects, significant correlation has been found between ghrelin and GH
during the OGTT (p=0.0001). In OW and NW subjects, the multiple regression
analysis showed that the glucose was the only independent predictor of ghrelin
during the OGTT (OW, p=0.003; NW, p=0,004). Ghrelin secretion during OGTT may
be controlled by different mechanisms in individuals with anorexia nervosa than
in overweight individuals.
