Endocrine Abstracts

Aims: BB rats develop diabetes as young adults by an autoimmune mechanism. Ghrelin is a peptidic hormone synthesized mainly in the oxintic cells of the gastric mucosae in adults. During intrauterine life however, this peptide is synthesized mainly at the pancreas. Ghrelin exerts proliferative and survival promoting effects in different cell types. We investigated the effect of ghrelin treatment in a diabetes autoimmune animal model to analyze death rate and cellular proliferat...