Profound hypoglycemia in starved, ghrelin-deficient mice is caused by decreased gluconeogenesis and reversed by lactate or fatty acids

Robert Lin Li, Daniel P. Sherbet, Benjamin L. Elsbernd, Joseph L. Goldstein, Michael S. Brown, Tong Jin Zhao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

104 Scopus citations

Abstract

When mice are subjected to 7-day calorie restriction (40% of normal food intake), body fat disappears, but blood glucose is maintained as long as the animals produce ghrelin, an octanoylated peptide that stimulates growth hormone secretion. Mice can be rendered ghrelin-deficient by knock-out of the gene encoding either ghrelin O-acyltransferase, which attaches the required octanoate, or ghrelin itself. Calorie-restricted, fat-depleted ghrelin O-acyltransferase or ghrelin knock-out mice fail to show the normal increase in growth hormone and become profoundly hypoglycemic when fasted for 18-23 h. Glucose production in Goat-/- mice was reduced by 60% when compared with similarly treated WT mice. Plasma lactate and pyruvate were also low. Injection of lactate, pyruvate, alanine, or a fatty acid restored blood glucose in Goat-/- mice. Thus, when body fat is reduced by calorie restriction, ghrelin stimulates growth hormone secretion, which allows maintenance of glucose production, even when food intake is eliminated. In humans with anorexia nervosa or kwashiorkor, ghrelin and growth hormone are known to be elevated, just as they are in fat-depleted mice.Wesuggest that these two hormones prolong survival in starved humans as they do in mice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)17942-17950
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Biological Chemistry
Volume287
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - May 25 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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