title: Obesity Impairs the Action of the Neuroendocrine Ghrelin System.
abstract: Ghrelin is a metabolic hormone that promotes energy conservation by regulating appetite and energy expenditure. Although some studies suggest that antagonizing ghrelin function attenuates body weight gain and glucose intolerance on a high calorie diet, there is little information about the metabolic actions of ghrelin in the obese state. In this review, we discuss the novel concept of obesity-induced central ghrelin resistance in neural circuits regulating behavior, and impaired ghrelin secretion from the stomach. Interestingly, weight loss restores ghrelin secretion and function, and we hypothesize that ghrelin resistance is a mechanism designed to protect a higher body weight set-point established during times of food availability, to maximize energy reserves during a time of food scarcity.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine (Divisions of Hypothalamic Research and Endocrinology and Metabolism) and Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390-9077, USA. Electronic address: Jeffrey.Zigman@UTSouthwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Zigman
authors.affiliation: The Saban Research Institute, Developmental Neuroscience Program, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA; Inserm, Jean-Pierre Aubert Research Center, U1172, University Lille 2, Lille, 59045, France.
authors.forename: Sebastien G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Bouret
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Disease and Obesity Theme, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3183, Australia.
authors.forename: Zane B
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Andrews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D054439:Ghrelin / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D054439:Ghrelin