Characteristic features of ghrelin cells in the gastrointestinal tract and the regulation of stomach ghrelin expression and production

作     者：Takafumi Sakai 

作者机构：Area of Regulatory Biology Division of Life Science Graduate School of Science and Engineering Saitama University 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Gastroenterology》 (世界胃肠病学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2008年第14卷第41期

页      面：6306-6311页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100201[医学-内科学(含：心血管病、血液病、呼吸系病、消化系病、内分泌与代谢病、肾病、风湿病、传染病)] 10[医学] 

基　　金：Supported by (in part) Grants for research fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists by the Program for Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation (NIBIO) 

主　　题：Stomach Estrogen Leptin Regulate Ghrelin Expression Physiological state 

摘      要：Ghrelin was isolated as an endogenous ligand for the GH secretagogue receptor from the rat stomach. Although physiological effects of ghrelin have been revealed by numerous studies, the regulation of stomach ghrelin remains obscure, and the factor that directly regulates ghrelin expression and production has not been identified. Here, we show some data regarding the characteristic features of ghrelin cells and the regulation of stomach ghrelin. In the gastrointestinal tract, ghrelin cells were identified as opened- and closed-type cells, and it was found that the number of ghrelin cells decreased from the stomach to the colon. The postnatal change in number of ghrelin cells in the stomach showed a sexually dimorphic pattern, indicating a role of estrogen in the regulation of stomach ghrelin. In vitro studies revealed that estrogen stimulated both ghrelin expression and production and that treatment with formestane, an aromatase (estrogen synthetase) inhibitor, decreased ghrelin expression level. On the other hand, leptin was found to inhibit both basal and estrogen-stimulated ghrelin expression. Moreover, both aromatase mRNA- expressing cells and leptin cells were found to be located close to ghrelin cells in the gastric mucosa. Furthermore, we found an inverse relationship between gastric ghrelin and leptin levels in a fasting state, and we revealed relative changes in expression of gastric ghrelin, estrogen and leptin in the postnatal rats. We propose that gastric estrogen and leptin directly regulate stomach ghrelin and that the balance control through gastric estrogen and leptin contributes to the altered ghrelin expression level in some physiological states.