An advanced form of peripheral artery disease could be treated by using the appetite-regulating hormone, ghrelin. The symptoms of this disease range from pain, non-healing ulcers to even gangrene.
This disease - critical limb ischemia (CLI) - is characterised by a severe obstruction of blood flow that often leads to major amputations and in 50 percent of cases even causes death within five years. Diabetes, obesity and age and the top risk factors of this condition. Researchers made use of a mouse model of CLI so that researchers could show that administering ghrelin daily over two weeks translated to a good improvement of blood flow in the affected limbs.
The findings of this study have made medical practitioners optimistic as currently there are no drugs treatments for CLI. The results of this research are printed in the journal Endocrinology.
