The determination of Ghrelin immunoreactivity in gastric mucosa of fundus during pregnancy in mice

Ghrelin, called as appetite or hunger hormone, is mainly produced by gastric glands, and it stimulates appetite. Because of increasing food intake during pregnancy due to augmented metabolic demands, the gastrointestinal tract problems have more serious clinical importance in this period. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of pregnancy on ghrelin immunoreactivity in the gastric mucosa of fundus in mice. For this purpose a total of 20 Swiss albino female mice at 12–14 weeks of age were used. The tissue samples were collected on days 3 (early-E), 10 (mid-M), and 17 (late-L) of pregnancy. Tissue samples were taken from the great curvature of stomach. Ghrelin was demonstrated immunohistochemically using peroxidase-labelled streptavidin biotin complex method. H-score was used for semi quantitatively analysis of ghrelin-positive cells. Although the g hrelin-immunoreactive cells were scattered throughout the fundic glands, it was observed that they mainly located at the lower portion of these glands.  Immunoreactivity was diffuse pattern in the cell cytoplasm. The ghrelin positive cells increased during pregnancy compared to non-pregnant control animals while the mean H-score, reflects the number and intensity of immunoreactive cells, was found the most higher at early and mid- gestational periods (C: 321 ,50±8, 35 ; E: 419 , 20±11 , 24 ; M: 423 , 50±15 , 12 ; L: 378 , 05±17 , 07, p<0,05 ). It was concluded that these findings obtained from this study may suggested a new explanation for the relation to between the pregnancy and gastrointestinal disturbances.