Relationships between fasting plasma ghrelin levels and metabolic parameters in children and adolescents

Recent findings suggest that ghrelin may have a beneficial effect on vasculature. In the present study, we examined the associations between plasma ghrelin concentration and metabolic parameters in children and adolescents. We measured fasting plasma ghrelin concentrations in 50 Korean children and adolescents (28 boys and 22 girls, mean ± SD age 12.6 ± 2.7 years, body mass index 22.7 ± 5.1 kg/m²), and analyzed the associations between fasting plasma ghrelin level and anthropometric measurements, metabolic parameters, leptin concentration, and fasting insulin level. We found that fasting plasma ghrelin concentration was negatively correlated with height, weight, body mass index, percent body fat, waist circumference, and hip circumference in both boys and girls. Fasting plasma ghrelin levels were significantly negatively correlated with triglycerides and fasting insulin levels and positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in boys, but not in girls. Our results thus demonstrate that higher plasma ghrelin levels have beneficial effects on metabolic parameters in boys and that the relationships between fasting plasma ghrelin levels and metabolic parameters differed according to sex.