The administration of human ghrelin attenuates development of cardiac cachexia in rats with heart failure

Background: Recently, the natural ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS), ghrelin, was observed to have potential in the treatment of severe chronic heart failure (CHF) and cardiac cachexia (CC). There have been, however, no randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies for the administration of ghrelin. We designed 2 studies to clarify the effectiveness of human ghrelin, to determine if it improves left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and attenuates CC in a rat CHF model. Investigators handling animals and performing assessments were blinded to treatment assignment. Methods: Study-1 adm…