Investigators may have found a novel route to weight loss by controlling the hormone that produces appetite.

The hormone, ghrelin, is produced by the fundus, or upper part of the stomach. Since ghrelin requires a rich supply of blood to be created, the scientists shut down the blood supply to that area of the stomach by chemically blocking the main artery there.

In a study funded by the federal National Institutes of Health, researchers at Johns Hopkins University took 10 healthy, growing pigs - which are anatomically similar to humans - and divided them into two groups. Guided by X-ray technology, they threaded a catheter through a blood vessel in each pig's groin until it reached the gastric artery. At this point, in one group, they injected saline solution. In the other, they injected sodium morrhuate, a chemical that creates an arterial blockage.

The pigs' blood ghrelin levels were monitored for one month thereafter. In the control group, ghrelin remained the same, while in the sodium morrhuate group, the hormone dropped by up to 60 percent. In the latter group, appetite also was inhibited, and the pigs' weight plateaued. "And pigs are very hard to make them lose weight," said Aravind Arepally, clinical director of the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design and associate professor of radiology and surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

"With gastric artery chemical embolization, called GACE, there's no major surgery," said Arepally, the research team's leader. "In our study in pigs, this procedure produced an effect similar to bariatric surgery by suppressing ghrelin levels and subsequently lowering appetite."

Bariatric surgery, in which part of the stomach or small intestine is removed, reconstructed or bypassed, can effectively suppress appetite and lead to major weight loss, but it's risky and can have serious complications. "Obesity is the biggest biomedical problem in the country, and a minimally invasive alternative would make an enormous difference in choices and outcomes for obese people," Arepally said.

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