Peptide directoryGut, pancreas & liver

Obestatin

A peptide cut from the ghrelin precursor whose proposed job did not hold up.

Where it comes from

Made in
Stomach and gut, from preproghrelin
Sent out by
Secreted with ghrelin, as far as is known
Acts on
  • None established

What it does

  • First reported to suppress appetite and oppose ghrelin 1; later studies did not reproduce it 3
  • GPR39, the receptor claimed for it, answers to zinc ions and not to obestatin 2
  • Effects on fat cells, muscle and beta cells are reported in cell and animal work, and its physiology remains unsettled

In medicine

  • None: no medicine and no clinical test, and it is measured only in research
  • Its blood level has been reported as altered in obesity, diabetes and pancreatitis, with nothing following from any of it

Beyond the body’s own use

  • Not in trials. The 2005 report in Science that it cuts food intake and opposes ghrelin 1 has not held: the receptor claim failed first 2, then a careful rodent study found no effect on food intake, body weight, gastric emptying or growth hormone 3
  • What is asked of it now is narrower and more basic: whether the peptide circulates at all in the amounts the early assays reported, since the antibodies used then cross-reacted and the newer measurements are much lower

Sources

  1. Zhang et al., Obestatin, a peptide encoded by the ghrelin gene, opposes ghrelin’s effects on food intake, Science 2005
  2. Holst et al., GPR39 signalling is stimulated by zinc ions but not by obestatin, Endocrinology 2007
  3. Nogueiras et al., Effects of obestatin on energy balance and growth hormone secretion in rodents, Endocrinology 2007

This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.