Ghrelin stimulation of growth hormone release and appetite is mediated through the growth hormone secretagogue receptor

Synthetic agonists of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) rejuvenate the pulsatile pattern of GH-release in the elderly, and increase lean but not fat mass in obese subjects. Screening of tissue extracts in a cell line engineered to overexpress the GHSR led to the identification of a natural agonist called ghrelin. Paradoxically, this hormone was linked to obesity. However, it had not been directly shown that the GHSR is a physiologically relevant ghrelin receptor. Furthermore, ghrelin's structure is significantly different from the synthetic agonist (MK-0677) used to expression-clone the GHSR. To address whether the GHSR mediates ghrelin's stimulatory effects on GH release and appetite, we…

• YU
  Yale University
• CA
  Curtis and Doris K. Hankamer Foundation
• CI
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research