TABLE 1.

Potency and efficacy of ghrelin and the growth hormone secretagogues as measured using a [³⁵S]GTPγS scintillation proximity assay

The potencies and efficacies of GHRP-6, MK-677, and L-692,585 were compared with that of ghrelin. E_MAX is the maximum efficacy of each ligand, where 100% equals the maximum efficacy of ghrelin. Data were fitted with concentration-response curves with Hill slopes constrained to 1. Data are presented as mean ± S.E.M.

Ligand	pEC50	EMAX
Ghrelin	9.11 ± 0.10	95.4 ± 3.4
GHRP-6	7.85 ± 0.13**	139.5 ± 5.4*
MK-677	9.21 ± 0.12	139.6 ± 9.9*
L-692,585	7.60 ± 0.17**	145.4 ± 14.0*

^* P < 0.05, one-way ANOVA with Dunnett's post hoc test.

^** P < 0.01, one-way ANOVA with Dunnett's post hoc test.