Is gastrin partially responsible for body weight reduction after gastric bypass?
BACKGROUND
The rationale for bariatric surgery is to reduce food intake by gastric restriction and/or malabsorption by intestinal bypass. Unlike ghrelin, gastrin is released in response to food intake. Here we studied the possible role of gastrin in the reduction of body weight after gastric bypass surgery.


METHODS
Rats were divided into four experimental groups and were subjected to different treatments: sham operation, gastric bypass, sham operation + gastrin infusion, and gastric bypass + gastrin infusion. The gastric bypass was done by anastomosing the esophagus to the duodenal bulb without bypassing the intestine. Gastrin-17 was infused continuously for 2 months via subcutaneously implanted osmotic minipumps. Body weights were recorded; serum gastrin and ghrelin levels were measured, and the stomachs were analyzed morphologically.


RESULTS
Gastric bypass resulted in reducing the body weight, stomach weight, thickness of the oxyntic mucosa, serum gastrin concentration, and activity of the ECL cells. Gastrin infusion prevented mucosal atrophy and ECL cell inactivation, and attenuated the body weight reduction that occurred following gastric bypass. Circulating ghrelin and ghrelin-producing A-like cells in stomachs that had undergone gastric bypass were unchanged with or without gastrin infusion and are thus unlikely to be responsible for the reduced body weight.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that hypogastrinemia and impaired ECL cell function in the oxyntic mucosa of the stomach might be partially responsible for the reduction in body weight that occurs after gastric bypass.
Stenstrom
Björn
B
Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Zhao
Chun-Mei
CM
Tømmerås
Karin
K
Arum
Carl-Jørgen
CJ
Chen
Duan
D
D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D000818:Animals; D004386:Duodenum / Q000601:surgery; D004759:Enterochromaffin Cells / Q000502:physiology; D004947:Esophagus / Q000601:surgery; D015390:Gastric Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D005755:Gastrins / Q000097:blood* / Q000494:pharmacology; D054439:Ghrelin; D015918:Infusion Pumps, Implantable; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D010295:Parietal Cells, Gastric / Q000502:physiology; D036361:Peptide Hormones / Q000097:blood; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
D005755:Gastrins; D054439:Ghrelin; D036361:Peptide Hormones; C013550:gastrin 17