Metabolic status regulates the diverse roles of ghrelin in the body

Metabolic status regulates the diverse roles of ghrelin in the body

Metabolic status regulates the diverse roles of ghrelin in the body (#144)

Zane Andrews ¹

Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

Ghrelin was initially described a stomach hormone that regulates growth hormone release, appetite and adiposity. However recent studies highlight that ghrelin targets the brain to regulate a diverse number of processes including blood glucose, neuroprotection, learning and memory, stress and anxiety and reward. We consider ghrelin a signal of insufficient body energy stores and as such negative and positive energy balance increase and decrease plasma ghrelin respectively in animal models and in humans. This talk describes how metabolic status such as calorie restriction and diet-induced obesity affects the neuroendocrine ghrelin system. We show that diet-induced obesity affects the ability of ghrelin to induce appetite and regulate the reward pathways in the brain. In addition, we show that elevated ghrelin during calorie restriction mediates neuroprotection in models of Parkinson’s disease and helps to maintain blood glucose levels. We suggest the hypothesis that ghrelin has a positive effect on a diverse number of brain functions, in order to help promote food intake and shift an animal from negative to neutral energy balance.

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Andrews, Z

Associate Professor Zane Andrews received his PhD in New Zealand at the University of Otago in 2003 and has 15 years experience in the field of neuroendocrinology and neuroscience. From there, he went on to do postdoctoral training at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (2004-2008). Dr Andrews came to Monash University late in 2008 as a Monash Fellow and has started to establish his own research program. In 2011 he became an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and in 2015 he was awarded a NHMRC Career Development Award Level 2. His works focuses on the neuroendocrine control of energy homeostasis and is internationally recognised for his research on the metabolic hormone ghrelin and its central role in energy and glucose homeostasis, as well as hypothalamic circuits controlling energy homeostasis. He uses a combination of transgenic mouse and viral models, animal behaviour, neuroanatomy and in vivo physiology to probe questions about how the brain senses and integrates nutritional and hormonal cues and how these signals are transformed in behavioural and physiological adaptations that maintain energy and glucose homeostasis.

Metabolic status regulates the diverse roles of ghrelin in the body (#144)

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