Ghrelin plasma levels in patients with idiopathic short stature.
BACKGROUND
Novel molecular insights have suggested that ghrelin may be involved in the pathogenesis of some forms of short stature. Recently, growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) mutations that segregate with short stature have been reported.


OBJECTIVE
To study plasma ghrelin levels in prepubertal patients with idiopathic short stature (ISS).


METHODS
Fasting total plasma ghrelin levels (radioimmunoassay) in 41 prepubertal patients with ISS (18 females, age 7.9 ± 0.5 years) compared with 42 age- and sex-matched controls (27 females, age 8.0 ± 0.3 years) with normal height. In a subset of 28 patients, the ghrelin receptor was sequenced.


RESULTS
ISS patients exhibited a higher level of ghrelin (1,458 ± 137 vs. 935 ± 55 pg/ml, p < 0.01) and similar IGF-I levels (-0.66 ± 1.29 vs. -0.32 ± 0.78 SDS) compared to controls. Ten patients with ISS had ghrelin levels greater than +2 SDS compared to controls. These patients did not differ in height, BMI or IGF-I SDS compared to ISS patients with ghrelin levels within the normal range. Molecular analysis of GHSR did not show any mutations, but showed some polymorphisms.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that in ISS patients, short stature does not appear to be frequently caused by abnormalities in ghrelin signaling.
Iñiguez
Germán
G
Institute of Maternal and Child Research, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Román
Rossana
R
Youlton
Ronald
R
Cassorla
Fernando
F
Mericq
Verónica
V
D001827:Body Height / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D004392:Dwarfism / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D054439:Ghrelin / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D054440:Receptors, Ghrelin / Q000235:genetics*
D054439:Ghrelin; D054440:Receptors, Ghrelin