Ghrelin, IBD and the Relationship with Adiposity
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Serum Ghrelin and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: does it vary with disease activity and weight?
IRAS ID
163995
Contact name
Jonathan Tyrrell-Price
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
This is a single centre prospective cohort pilot study on people with inflammatory bowel disease from the gastroenterology NHS outpatients department. The aim is to identify whether people with active Inflammatory bowel disease who are obese have lower acyl-ghrelin levels.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of disorders including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) in which there is an immune mediated inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. People with IBD are traditionally perceived as being underweight, but a number of studies have observed an increasing trend towards being overweight or obese. There is limited available data, but obese people with CD have been observed to have more severe disease course.Ghrelin is a relatively new gut hormone. As well as increasing appetite and weight it has been noted to have an anti-inflammatory effect. In various inflammatory conditions it has been noted to be elevated including in active inflammatory bowel disease where it is thought to be regulating the immune response. It is established that baseline ghrelin levels are low in the overweight or obese population therefore they may generate lower ghrelin levels during an episode of inflammation. This may explain the unfavourable prognosis in the obese IBD population as lower ghrelin levels would lead to less counter regulation of the inflammation. Acyl-ghrelin will be measured as it is the form of the hormone which exerts an anti-inflammatory effect. The estimated number of study participants is 80, with 10 healthy controls. Participants will require 2 visits during which information about disease, disease extent, treatment, nutritional status and biochemical and haematological parameters of disease will be assessed.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0053
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion