Does gastric tissue Ghrelin and Leptin correlate with serum values? A pilot study of the Indian Obese population

While serum Ghrelin and leptin has been studied over the last decades, there are very few human studies correlating the serum levels with the presence of the ghrelin and leptin cells in gastric tissue.

We have assessed the presence of leptin and ghrelin cells in the resected sleeve of stomach following Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy (LSG) and correlated the same with serum levels of ghrelin and leptin hormones before and after 6 months of surgery. The study was conducted at department of gastro-intestinal (GI) surgery of a tertiary care hospital from 2017-2019.

Forty-five patients participated in the study. Thirty-five of the specimens were negative for ghrelin cells and 29 were negative for leptin cells. While the levels of serum ghrelin in the ghrelin-negative specimen group were lower than normal, the levels in the ghrelin-positive specimen group were significantly higher, which reduced following LSG. In the leptin group, while the leptin-positive group had higher serum levels that dropped after surgery, the leptin-negative group also showed raised serum leptin levels, which further increased after surgery. Serum ghrelin levels showed a positive correlation with serum insulin levels but did not translate to statistically significant increased number of diabetic patients.

Ghrelin and leptin cells are not universally present in the stomach in Indian population. Serum values of leptin and ghrelin correlates positively to the presence of their secreting cells in the Gastric sleeve. This study gives scope to evaluate the presence and distribution of these cells in the gastric sleeve.