• Jieyun Yin and Jiande Chen.
• Veterans Research and Education Foundation, VA Medical Center and Transneuronix Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Division of Gastroenterology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0632, USA.
• Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 2006 Aug 1;41(8):903-9.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of ghrelin on food intake, gastric motility and whether gastric electrical stimulation (GES) is capable of reversing these effects of ghrelin in dogs.Material And MethodsSeven healthy dogs were equipped with a gastric cannula and electrodes for the measurement of antral motility and gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA). Both food intake and gastric motility studies were performed in three sessions (control, ghrelin, 20 microg and ghrelin plus GES) in randomized order, respectively. After a 28-h fast, the animals were provided with unlimited solid food for 1.5 h, 30 min after saline or ghrelin injection. Recordings of antral contractions and GMA in each session were recorded for 30 min at baseline and 45 min after ghrelin/saline injection in the fasting state. GES was performed throughout the experiment initiated 30 min prior to the injection.Results1) Ghrelin significantly increased food intake from 475.6+/-75.5 g in the controls to 535.9+/-90.3 g with ghrelin (p=0.04); this excitatory effect was reversed by GES. 2) Ghrelin significantly increased the motility index from 8.6+/-1.6 in the controls to 16.1+/-2.4 with ghrelin (p=0.01) and this effect was also reversed by GES. 3). There were no effects of ghrelin on GMA.ConclusionsGhrelin induces antral contractions and increases food intake. GES is capable of blocking these excitatory effects of ghrelin. These findings suggest that GES may inhibit the resistant effect of ghrelin on weight loss.

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