Hormone therapy mimics stomach stapling
Scientists at the Hopkins Medical School are one step closer to finding a less invasive alternative to bariatric surgery. Earlier this month, Aravind Arepally and his colleagues successfully suppressed the production of the hunger-inducing hormone, ghrelin, in pigs by damaging the main vessel that carries blood to the top of the stomach, where ghrelin is produced.
The pigs' ghrelin production was severely reduced, which lowered their appetite and led to weight loss.
Bariatric surgery - an umbrella term for any procedure in which parts of the stomach or bowel are removed or altered to facilitate weight loss - is effective, but often risky and expensive. The most common variant of this procedure is often called "stomach stapling."
Arepally's team achieved the same appetite-suppressing effects as bariatric surgery by injecting sodium morrhuate, a blood-vessel destroying chemical, into the left gastric arteries of growing pigs. This process, called gastric artery chemical embolization (GACE), cuts off the major blood supply to the top of the stomach, or fundus, where approximately 90 percent of ghrelin originates.
Without proper blood supply, ghrelin production was inhibited by up to 60 percent from baseline.
"Ghrelin fluctuates throughout the day, responding to all kinds of emotional and physiological scenarios," Arepally explained in a statement last week. "But even if the brain says 'produce more ghrelin,' GACE physically prevents the stomach from making the hunger hormone."
For over 10 years, attempts to safely suppress ghrelin have had very limited success. Meanwhile, the need for effective, alternative weight loss options is growing as fast as Americans' waistbands.
Arepally's team is the first to achieve the same results as bariatric surgery by chemically vaporizing the main vessel to the fundus with a relatively simple, one-time injection of sodium morrhuate.
"Obesity is the biggest biomedical problem in the country, and a minimally invasive alternative would make an enormous difference in choices and outcomes for obese people."
The pigs' ghrelin production was severely reduced, which lowered their appetite and led to weight loss.
Bariatric surgery - an umbrella term for any procedure in which parts of the stomach or bowel are removed or altered to facilitate weight loss - is effective, but often risky and expensive. The most common variant of this procedure is often called "stomach stapling."
Arepally's team achieved the same appetite-suppressing effects as bariatric surgery by injecting sodium morrhuate, a blood-vessel destroying chemical, into the left gastric arteries of growing pigs. This process, called gastric artery chemical embolization (GACE), cuts off the major blood supply to the top of the stomach, or fundus, where approximately 90 percent of ghrelin originates.
Without proper blood supply, ghrelin production was inhibited by up to 60 percent from baseline.
"Ghrelin fluctuates throughout the day, responding to all kinds of emotional and physiological scenarios," Arepally explained in a statement last week. "But even if the brain says 'produce more ghrelin,' GACE physically prevents the stomach from making the hunger hormone."
For over 10 years, attempts to safely suppress ghrelin have had very limited success. Meanwhile, the need for effective, alternative weight loss options is growing as fast as Americans' waistbands.
Arepally's team is the first to achieve the same results as bariatric surgery by chemically vaporizing the main vessel to the fundus with a relatively simple, one-time injection of sodium morrhuate.
"Obesity is the biggest biomedical problem in the country, and a minimally invasive alternative would make an enormous difference in choices and outcomes for obese people."
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