Gut Hormone Obestatin Predicts Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery

Gut hormone obestatin predicts weight loss after bariatric surgery, researchers toldthe 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology held in San  Antonio,  Texas recently . Investigators from Inova Health System led by Zobair Younossi, M.D., FACG, assessed the relationship between weight loss after bariatric surgery and circulating hormones, “Baseline Serum Obestatin Correlates with Rate of Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery.” Among 35 patients undergoing Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass surgery, the rate of weight loss was correlated with only one circulating hormone, obestatin, a peptide produced in the gut which may have a role in appetite suppression.

“We know there is an inverse relationship between obestatin and body mass index,” explains James Michael Estep, Ph.D., the lead author of the study. In this study, weight loss among patients after bariatric surgery was faster during the first three months and even for the first 24 months, and a high baseline obestatin level measured just prior to surgery was strongly associated with the rate of weight loss after surgery.

Obestatin is thought to suppress appetite; there is experimental evidence from model organisms that obestatin is involved in the regulation of appetite, metabolism, and inflammation in a complex and somewhat antagonistic relationship with ghrelin (with which obestatin shares the same genetic locus.) However, the mechanism of its activity, down to the receptor with which it binds, remains unknown.

“Our promising results indicate that obestatin is certainly worth pursuing in a larger cohort study as an indicator of the efficacy of bariatric surgery, especially within the first year,” concluded Dr. Estep.



Source-Medindia