Fig. 5.

The sst₂ antagonist blocks urethane-induced reduction of ghrelin and prevents abdominal surgery-induced decrease of circulating acyl and desacyl ghrelin levels in overnight fasted rats. A: the sst₂ antagonist (100 μg/rat in 200 μl saline containing 0.1% BSA) or vehicle (saline containing 0.1% BSA) was injected iv followed by intraperitoneal injection of 25% urethane compared with rats that received no treatment. Animals were euthanized by decapitation 30 min later, and trunk blood was processed for acyl and total ghrelin measurement. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 vs. vehicle/no urethane; #P < 0.05 vs. sst₂ antagonist/urethane. B and C: the sst₂ antagonist (100 μg/rat in 200 μl saline containing 0.1% BSA) or vehicle (saline containing 0.1% BSA) was injected iv followed by abdominal surgery or sham procedure. Blood was withdrawn at 0.5 and 1 h after the end of the procedure and processed for acyl ghrelin measurement (B), and desacyl ghrelin (C) was calculated as the difference of total minus acyl ghrelin for each individual sample. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 vs. vehicle/sham; ###P < 0.001 vs. sst₂ antagonist/surgery. Each bar represents the means ± SE of number of rats indicated at the bottom of the column.