Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Largo Madonna delle Grazie, 80138 Naples, Italy.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Feb;35(2):284-8. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.07.001. Epub 2009 Jul 23.
In humans, the cephalic phase response to food ingestion consists mostly of vagal efferent activation, which promotes the secretion of entero-pancreatic hormones, including ghrelin. Since symptomatic patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) are characterized by increased vagal tone, we hypothesized an enhanced ghrelin secretion in the cephalic phase of vagal stimulation. Therefore, we investigated ghrelin response to modified sham feeding (MSF) in both BN and healthy women. Six drug-free BN women and 7 age-matched healthy females underwent MSF with initially seeing and smelling a meal, and then chewing the food without swallowing it. Blood samples were drawn immediately before and after MSF for hormone assay. Circulating ghrelin increased after MSF in both groups with BN individuals exhibiting a greater ghrelin increase, which positively correlated with the patients' weekly frequency of binge-purging. These results show for the first time an increased ghrelin secretion in the cephalic phase of vagal stimulation in symptomatic BN patients, likely resulting in a potentiation of the peripheral hunger signal, which might contribute to their aberrant binge-purging behavior.
在人类中，进食引起的头期反应主要由迷走神经传出激活引起，促进肠胰激素的分泌，包括胃饥饿素。由于神经性贪食症（BN）的有症状患者以迷走神经张力增加为特征，我们假设迷走神经刺激的头期胃饥饿素分泌增强。因此，我们研究了 BN 和健康女性在改良假饲（MSF）后头期胃饥饿素的反应。6 名无药物 BN 女性和 7 名年龄匹配的健康女性接受 MSF，最初看到和闻到食物，然后咀嚼食物但不吞咽。在 MSF 前后立即抽取血样进行激素测定。两组 BN 个体在 MSF 后循环胃饥饿素增加，BN 个体的胃饥饿素增加更大，与患者每周暴食-清肠的频率呈正相关。这些结果首次表明，在有症状的 BN 患者中，迷走神经刺激的头期胃饥饿素分泌增加，可能导致外周饥饿信号增强，这可能有助于他们异常的暴食-清肠行为。
