Ghrelin and obestatin levels in a sample of obese children : a case control study

Abstract EN

Background: Childhood obesity represents a serious multifactorial health problem that usually results when energy intake chronically exceeds energy expenditure.

Ghrelin and Obestatin are gut derived hormones that have been described as important physiological regulators of appetite and energy homeostasis.

Aim of the study: The study aims to assess serum levels of Ghrelin and Obestatin hormones among obese children compared to non- obese children.

Subjects and methods: The study is a case control study that involved 60 obese prepubertal children aged (6-< 12) years old of both sexes with body mass index (BMI)> 95® percentile according to the Egyptian growth curves, in addition to 31 healthy age and sex matched controls.

All children were subjected to medical history, clinical examination and anthropometric assessment: weight, height and calculating BM.

Fasting serum levels of Ghrelin, Obestatin and Glucose were measured.

Results: The mean age of the obese children in our study was 9.28 yearsi 1.66 SD which showed no statistically significant difference from that of the control group (8.81± 1.74 years) (P= 0.210).

The obese group had significantly higher mean values of Weight (52.69± 11.46 kg versus 26.36± 5.34 kg) compared to normal- weight children (P= 0.000).

Obese children had significantly lower serum levels of fasting Ghrelin (1167.37± 148.25 ng/1) and Obestatin (390.72± 98.49 ng/1) than the control group (1628.10± 154.40& 462.721 109.40 respectively).

The mean fasting blood glucose of the obese group was 152.16± 20.40 mg/dl and in the control group was 85.46± 7.82 mg/dl with highly significant difference (P= 0.000).

Conclusion: Fasting serum Ghrelin and Obestatin were found lower in obese children with respect to lean participants.

This might be explained by the down regulation of Ghrelin and Obestatin as a result of excess energy intake in obese patients