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Updated: Jun 1, 2026
A Murine Model of Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy
Published on: December 18, 2017
Long-term plasma ghrelin and leptin modulation after sleeve gastrectomy in Wistar rats in comparison with gastric
Panagiotis Patrikakos1, Konstantinos G Toutouzas, Maria Gazouli
11st Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, Hippocration Hospital, Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece.
Background:
Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is a gaining ground operation amongst the ones applied for treatment of morbid obesity. Though SG is a food limiting operation, the removal of the gastric fundus where ghrelin is mainly produced may indicate a hormonal impact of the procedure. The purpose of this experiment is to study how SG affects the levels of ghrelin and leptin.
Methods:
Twenty-four male, adult, diet induced obese Wistar rats were divided randomly into groups, one submitted to SG and the other to a sham operation. Fasting blood samples were taken before the operation and 14 weeks after the operation (leptin and acylated and des-acyl ghrelin levels were measured). Tissue samples from the gastric fundus were taken during the operation and at the end of the experiment, and ghrelin expression was measured with RT-PCR.
Results:
Statistically significant weight loss was achieved comparing the weight progress of the SG group and the sham operation group. Serum leptin levels were significantly reduced in the SG group (p < 0.05) but not in the sham operation group. Serum acylated ghrelin was not significantly affected in both groups, but a significant decrease was documented in serum des-acyl ghrelin in the SG group (p < 0.05). RT-PCR analysis of the gastric fundus documented a significant decrease (p < 0.0001) in the expression of ghrelin in the SG group.
Conclusions:
SG may lead in significant long-term weight loss. SG affects the serum levels of leptin and des-acyl ghrelin but not the levels of acylated ghrelin in this animal model.
