Figure 3
Over a period of 3 months
((a–c), compare timepoints “week 8” and “week 21” of the study), animals not treated with the ghrelin agonist gained significantly more weight than ghrelin agonist treated animals ((a), p = 0.009 for high-GI group vs. ghrelin agonist group, p = 0.015 for controls vs. ghrelin agonist group, one-way ANOVA/ Tukey’s). The same groups showed a tendency to gain more fat mass ((b), p = 0.062 for high GI vs. ghrelin agonist group, p = 0.069 for controls vs. ghrelin agonist group, one-way ANOVA/Tukey’s) than ghrelin agonist treated animals. The high-GI group gained significantly more lean mass than the ghrelin-agonist treated group ((c), p = 0.048), the controls showed a tendency ((c), p = 0.069, one-way ANOVA/Tukey’s). Activity levels during the mice’s active period (measurements taken in week 21) were higher in ghrelin-agonist-treated animals than in the high-GI and control diet groups ((d), p < 0.001 for both comparisons, one-way ANOVA/Tukey’s). Immediately after administration, the ghrelin agonist led to significantly higher food intake during the 2 subsequent hours ((e), p = 0.045 for AUC between gray arrows in (f), data for a sample of 12-month-old C57/BL6 mice from a different study, t-test for unpaired samples). However, cumulative food intake as measured for an entire day hardly ever reached the maximum of food assigned to ghrelin-agonist-treated animals as indicated by the gray lines ((g), days refer to the period while food intake was recorded). Bars indicate SEM.
