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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Body Composition and Metabolic Caging Analysis in High Fat Fed Mice
Published on: May 24, 2018
Characterization of a novel ghrelin cell reporter mouse
Ichiro Sakata1, Yoshihide Nakano, Sherri Osborne-Lawrence
1Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9077, USA.
Abstract:
Ghrelin is a hormone that influences many physiological processes and behaviors, such as food intake, insulin and growth hormone release, and a coordinated response to chronic stress. However, little is known about the molecular pathways governing ghrelin release and ghrelin cell function. To better study ghrelin cell physiology, we have generated several transgenic mouse lines expressing humanized Renilla reniformis green fluorescent protein (hrGFP) under the control of the mouse ghrelin promoter. hrGFP expression was especially abundant in the gastric oxyntic mucosa, in a pattern mirroring that of ghrelin immunoreactivity and ghrelin mRNA. hrGFP expression also was observed in the duodenum, but not in the brain, pancreatic islet, or testis. In addition, we used fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) to collect and partially characterize highly enriched populations of gastric ghrelin cells. We suggest that these novel ghrelin-hrGFP transgenic mice will serve as useful tools to better understand ghrelin cell physiology.
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