Ghrelin, produced primarily in the gastrointestinal tract, including the stomach, has been reported to reflect nutritional status and to control homeostasis by influencing food intake and adiposity. The purpose of this study is to evaluate nutritional status, as well as plasma and gastric tissue ghrelin levels, in patients with gastric cancer who underwent a gastrectomy.

Eighty patients were analyzed by the of weight loss (weight loss ≥ 5% or < 5%) and the extent of gastrectomy (subtotal or total gastrectomy). Blood samples were collected from all patients preoperatively and postoperatively especially at seven days. Gastric tissues, including tumor and normal tissues, were obtained from the resected stomach. Levels of plasma and tissue ghrelin were measured with a commercial ELISA kit.

There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics and ghrelin levels of plasma, gastric tumor tissue and normal tissue by the of weight loss. The ghrelin levels in plasma and tumor tissue showed no correlations with each other while the ghrelin level in tumor tissue was significantly lower than that in normal tissue. The of cellular differentiation also had an association with ghrelin production. A gastrectomy proved to decrease significantly plasma ghrelin levels, body mass index, and biochemical markers, regardless of the extent of gastric resection.

These results show that gastric cancer affects the production of ghrelin in the gastric mucosa and that ghrelin is mainly produced in stomach even though it could be partially covered by endogenous ghrelin from other organs following a gastrectomy. However, we should further investigate which other factors have an impact on energy consumption, ghrelin secretion, and changes in ghrelin levels after a gastrectomy.