Effects of peripheral ghrelin treatment and the associations between leptin and ghrelin in growing ram lambs

Abstract

Leptin an adipocytes-derived hormone is an important regulator of bodyweight and energy metabolism. Ghrelin another hormone, influences energy and could directly influence the deposition of fat. In this study, researchers aimed to investigate the effect of long term ghrelin treatment the relationships between leptin and ghrelin and leptin per carcass measurements in Awassi ram lambs. The lambs were randomly assigned to the following 4 groups with 4 animals per group according to both the frequency of food administration and ghrelin treatment: in group I, animals were fed ad libitum in the group II, animals were fed ad libitum and intravenously injected with the ghi-elin twice a week in the group III, animals were fed once a day and in the group IV, animals were fed twice a day. Blood samples were collected 30 min before feeding and 60 min after feeding to be analyzed for plasma ghrelin and leptin hormone levels. The study was completed using the slaughter weight (43 kg) which was determined when the Awassi lambs in each group were slaughtered after 12 h of fasting. These results suggest that in ruminant species, ghrelin levels are affected by long-term programmed meal feeding; however, the relationships between leptin and carcass weight and MILD measurements showed no significant differences.