Long-Term Plasma Ghrelin and Leptin Modulation After Sleeve Gastrectomy in Wistar Rats in Comparison with Gastric Tissue Ghrelin Expression

• Published in: Obesity surgery 2011-09, Vol.21 (9), p.1432-1437
• Main Authors: Patrikakos, Panagiotis, Toutouzas, Konstantinos G., Gazouli, Maria, Perrea, Despoina, Menenakos, Evangelos, Papadopoulos, Stefanos, Zografos, George
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Research; Animals; Gastrectomy - methods; Gastric Fundus - metabolism; Gastrointestinal surgery; Ghrelin - blood; Ghrelin - metabolism; Hormones; Leptin - blood; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Obesity; Obesity, Morbid - blood; Obesity, Morbid - metabolism; Obesity, Morbid - surgery; Random Allocation; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rodents; Surgery; Weight Loss - physiology
• ISSN: 0960-8923; 1708-0428
• DOI: 10.1007/s11695-011-0426-x

Background Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is a gaining ground operation amongst the ones applied for treatment of morbid obesity. Though SG is a food limiting operation, the removal of the gastric fundus where ghrelin is mainly produced may indicate a hormonal impact of the procedure. The purpose of this experiment is to study how SG affects the levels of ghrelin and leptin. Methods Twenty-four male, adult, diet induced obese Wistar rats were divided randomly into groups, one submitted to SG and the other to a sham operation. Fasting blood samples were taken before the operation and 14 weeks after the operation (leptin and acylated and des-acyl ghrelin levels were measured). Tissue samples from the gastric fundus were taken during the operation and at the end of the experiment, and ghrelin expression was measured with RT-PCR. Results Statistically significant weight loss was achieved comparing the weight progress of the SG group and the sham operation group. Serum leptin levels were significantly reduced in the SG group ( p