The role of acylated ghrelin and unacylated ghrelin in the blood and hypothalamus and their interaction with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

OBJECTIVES

Ghrelin is a brain-gut peptide involved in substance and energy metabolism. To confirm the hypothesis that ghrelin might be involved in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a rat NAFLD model was established and the changes of ghrelin were explored.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The rats were divided into control and NAFLD groups. The rats in the NAFLD group were fed a high-fat-high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet for 8 weeks. Total ghrelin (TG), acylated ghrelin (AG), unacylated ghrelin (UAG), and hypothalamic AG and its receptor GHSR-1a expression were detected using ELISA, RIA, RT-PCR, and Western blot, respectively.

RESULTS

Plasma UAG, TG, and the ratio of UAG to AG (UAG/AG) decreased, while protein and mRNA expression of hypothalamic AG and growth hormone secretagogue receptor-1a (GHSR-1a) increased in NAFLD (0.01). Plasma UAG and UAG/AG were negatively associated with homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), while AG positively correlated with HOMA-IR (R=0.6510, 0.005; R=0.8520, 0.000; R=0.5617, 0.013, respectively). Plasma UAG, TG and UAG/AG negatively correlated with serum LDL-C or hepatic triglycerides (TGs) (R=0.7733, P=0.001; R=0.6930, 0.003; R=0.6042, 0.008; R=0.7046, 0.002; R=0.6722, 0.004; R=0.5124, 0.020, respectively). Hypothalamic AG and GHSR-1a positively correlated with HOMA-IR or hepatic TGs (R=0.5116, 0.020; R=0.5220, 0.018; R=0.6074, 0.008; R=0.5127, 0.020, respectively).

CONCLUSION

It might be that decreased circulating UAG/AG, rather than UAG or AG alone, were involved in IR and liver lipid accumulation in NAFLD. Acylated ghrelin might induce IR and promote liver lipid accumulation via a central mechanism involved in the hypothalamus.