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Early alterations in plasma ghrelin levels in offspring of calorie-restricted rats during gestation may be linked to lower sympathetic drive to the stomach
- Source :
- Peptides. 39:59-63
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2013.
-
Abstract
- Serum ghrelin concentration is generally reduced in obesity. We aimed to assess whether this alteration is present in rats predisposed to obesity because of moderate undernutrition during gestation, and to explore whether this could be related with alterations in stomach sympathetic innervation, which is involved in gastric ghrelin secretion. Offspring of control and 20% gestational calorie-restricted dams (CR) exposed to normal-fat-diet from weaning onward were studied. Circulating ghrelin levels were measured at 25 days and 4 months of age. Morphometry, number of ghrelin-positive (ghrelin + ) cells, ghrelin mRNA and protein levels, and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) protein levels in stomach were determined at 25 days. Adult CR male animals, but not females, exhibited greater body-weight (BW) than their controls, but both males and females showed lower circulating ghrelin levels. This alteration in ghrelin levels was already present at 25 days, prior to any difference in BW. At this juvenile age, no differences in gastric morphometry, number of ghrelin + cells or ghrelin mRNA/protein levels were found between control and CR animals, however, CR animals showed lower TH stomach content. These results suggest that circulating ghrelin concentration is early altered in rats prenatally programmed to develop obesity. This does not seem to be associated with lower ghrelin production capacity but with specific alterations in sympathetic drive to the stomach.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Sympathetic Nervous System
Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase
Physiology
Offspring
Calorie restriction
Gene Expression
030209 endocrinology & metabolism
Biology
Biochemistry
03 medical and health sciences
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
0302 clinical medicine
Endocrinology
Pregnancy
Internal medicine
medicine
Animals
Weaning
Rats, Wistar
Caloric Restriction
030304 developmental biology
2. Zero hunger
0303 health sciences
Tyrosine hydroxylase
Stomach
digestive, oral, and skin physiology
Ghrelin
Rats
medicine.anatomical_structure
Gastric Mucosa
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
Gestation
Female
hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists
Ghrelin secretion
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 01969781
- Volume :
- 39
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Peptides
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b8b39582e30624c07785911167ccbd4f