Endocrine Abstracts

Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be a major cause of vascular complications in diabetes. Our research shows that obestatin, a 23-aminoacid amidated peptide recently identified as a product of the ghrelin gene, inhibited high glucose-induced apoptosis in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC). Exposure to high glucose concentration (30 mM) for 72 h caused a significant increase in apoptosis, as evaluated by Hoechst staining, but co-treatment of rat obestatin (from...