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Ghrelin improved blood flow, cell survival in mice with critical limb ischemia
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The appetite-regulating hormone ghrelin reduced the symptoms of early-stage critical limb ischemia in mice, stimulating the development of new capillaries and arterioles and improving blood flow in affected limbs, according to research in Endocrinology.
Rajesh Katare, MD, PhD, of the department of physiology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and colleagues administered ghrelin daily for 2 weeks in mice affected with critical limb ischemia (CLI), and found that the hormone also improved cell survival and decreased tissue fibrosis.
"Our team has previously shown that ghrelin showed promise for treating the presently incurable lung disease known as pulmonary hypertension, which is caused by blood vessels becoming progressively blocked,” Katare said in a press release. "This prompted us to investigate whether ghrelin might have a similar effect in CLI."
Katare and colleagues analyzed data from 16 mice induced with CLI randomly assigned either daily injections of ghrelin (n = 8) or a saline solution (n = 8) for 14 days. Researchers found that mice in the ghrelin group exhibited an enhanced generation of new capillaries vs. the saline group and a control group of mice that received a sham procedure (P < .01) and increased the number of small-sized arterioles (P < .001). Mice in the saline group showed a threefold increase in the level of fibrosis in ischemic muscles vs. the control group, which was reduced by ghrelin therapy (6% in saline group vs. 2.3% in ghrelin group; P < .001).
Researchers also studied ghrelin's action at the molecular level in tissue with restricted blood supply and identified that the hormone modulated downstream signaling cascades involved in new blood vessel growth and cell survival.
"Our results provide a platform for future studies to look at the long-term potential of ghrelin to see if it could indeed become a standard treatment for CLI," Katare said. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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