The
Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting
In frail women with unexplained weight loss, ghrelin showed improvement
in appetite and growth hormone levels, according to new data presented this
morning.
Ghrelin is a relatively new, small, appetite-stimulating, peptide
hormone that is synthesized and secreted by the stomach, according to Carrie
Burns, MD, assistant professor of medicine for the Division of
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania
Hospital, Philadelphia.
“These data are the first to demonstrate an improvement in appetite
and growth hormone secretion with ghrelin administration in frail older women
with unexplained weight loss,” Burns said during a press conference.
Researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, pilot study of five
women aged 70 years or older. All women had demonstrated unintentional weight
loss >5% in the last year and two of the four standard criteria for frailty
(exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed and low physical activity). A control
group included five healthy women.
Participants were assigned to a graded ghrelin infusion of 2.5 pmol/kg
per minute, 5 pmol/kg per minute and 10 pmol/kg per minute for 60 minutes each
or placebo. All women received both ghrelin and placebo, and the order was
randomized. Infusions were given one week apart. Measurements of total and
active ghrelin and growth hormone response were taken. Participants were given
a standardized meal and intake was quantified.
Women assigned to ghrelin infusion consumed 51% more calories than the
placebo group, due to increased carbohydrate (P=.005) and protein
(P=.04) intake, not fat (P=.38), according to the researchers.
Additionally, total and active ghrelin and GH were higher among women in the
ghrelin group than in the placebo group (P≤.01).
Four women experienced a transient sensation of warmth during the
ghrelin infusion, although none of the women became febrile during the
infusion.
“We are gaining a better understanding of the hormonal changes
that occur as we get older and, with treatments like ghrelin, we can start
intervening to prevent some of the common health problems that keep elderly
people from living their most productive lives,” Anne Cappola, MD,
ScM, assistant professor of medicine in endocrinology at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, said in a press release.
Larger follow-up studies will examine the potential therapeutic role of
ghrelin or ghrelin mimetic agents in the frail population, according to a press
release. – by Christen Haigh
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