Table 1.

Effects of targeting ghrelin in pre-clinical versus clinical studies to modulate food intake and/or body weight.

Goal	Compound	Species and conditions	Route	Duration	Effect	Reference
Stimulate food intake and/or body weight	Pre-clinical
	ghrelin	rats with chronic renal failure	ip	7 days	food intake ↑, body weight =	[3]
	ghrelin	rats after lipopolysaccharide injection	iv	acute	food intake↑	[152]
	Clinical
	ghrelin	peritoneal dialysis patients with malnutrition	sc	acute	food intake↑	[158]
	ghrelin	dialysis patients with malnutrition	sc	7 days	appetite ↑, energy intake ↑	[12]
	formula rich in octanoic acids	cachectic patients with chronic respiratory disease	po	14 days	body weight ↑	[13]
Inhibit food intake and/or body weight	Pre-clinical
	anti-ghrelin vaccine	rats	ip	13 weeks	body weight gain ↓	[171]
	anti-ghrelin vaccine	pigs	sc	40 days	food intake ↓, body weight ↓	[151]
	anti-ghrelin vaccine	mice on high fat diet	sc	22 weeks	body weight gain =	[78]
	anti-ghrelin antibody	mice with diet-induced obesity	ip	4 weeks	acute: food intake ↓, chronic: food intake =, body weight =	[96]
	anti-ghrelin oligonucleotide	rats	ip	acute	food intake ↓, neuronal activation ↓	[81]
	anti-ghrelin oligonucleotide	mice with diet-induced obesity	sc	13 days	food intake ↓, body weight ↓	[128]
	GHS-R antagonist	lean and diet-induced obese mice	ip	5 days	food intake ↓, body weight gain ↓	[10]
	Clinical
	anti-ghrelin vaccine	obese patients	ns	24 weeks	body weight =	[20]

↑, increase; ↓, decrease; =, no effect; ip, intraperitoneal; iv, intravenous; ns, not specified; po, per os; sc, subcutaneous