The Saban Research Institute, Neuroscience Program, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA.
Peptides. 2011 Nov;32(11):2362-6. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2011.06.021. Epub 2011 Jun 28.
Ghrelin is a pleiotropic hormone that was originally described as promoting feeding and stimulating growth hormone release in adults. A growing body of evidence suggests that ghrelin may also exert developmental and organizational effects during perinatal life. The perinatal actions of ghrelin include the regulation of early developmental events such as blastocyst development and perinatal growth. Moreover, alterations in perinatal ghrelin levels result in structural differences in various peripheral organs, such as the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract. Recent data have also suggested that ghrelin acts on appetite-related brain centers in early life. Together, these observations indicate that exposure to factors that alter how ghrelin impacts development may induce lasting effects on physiological regulation.
胃饥饿素是一种多功能激素，最初被描述为促进成人进食和刺激生长激素释放。越来越多的证据表明，胃饥饿素在围产期也可能发挥发育和组织作用。胃饥饿素的围产期作用包括调节早期发育事件，如胚泡发育和围产期生长。此外，围产期胃饥饿素水平的改变导致各种外周器官（如胰腺和胃肠道）的结构差异。最近的数据还表明，胃饥饿素作用于生命早期与食欲相关的大脑中枢。总之，这些观察结果表明，暴露于改变胃饥饿素对发育影响的因素可能会对生理调节产生持久的影响。
