ArticleAddiction biology2012
Role of ghrelin in food reward: impact of ghrelin on sucrose self-administration and mesolimbic dopamine and acetylcholine receptor gene expression.
Article in Addiction biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 249 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ghrelin mimics fasting to enhance human hedonic, orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampal responses to food.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2014Trial
- Ghrelin Drives Food Intake by Attentional Bias Toward Food Cues.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Article
- High-fat diet exposure, internal state, and reward value influence decision making during motivational conflict.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- The Ghrelin-LEAP2 System in Obesity and Diabetes: Pathophysiological Roles and Therapeutic Potential.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Fasting ghrelin as mediator between obesity and depressive symptoms: a pre-registered study.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- Sex-specific alterations in CRF and dopaminergic markers in the lateral septum and mesolimbic system following chronic high-fat diet exposure in rats.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- The role of enteroendocrine cells, hormones, and gut microbiota in anorexia nervosa: a complex interplay of the microbiome-gut-brain axis.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Advantage of Semaglutide: Comprehensive Analysis of Metabolic Impact of Semaglutide-Treated and Pair-Fed Rats.Comprehensive physiology · 2025Article
- Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity as a Cause of Dietary Restriction in Eating Disorders.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Novel potential pharmacological approaches in treating eating disorders comorbid with substance use disorders.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2025Review
- Intranasal Delivery of a Ghrelin Mimetic Engages the Brain Ghrelin Signaling System in Mice.Endocrinology · 2025Article
- An Emerging Role for Gut-Brain Signaling Involving Ghrelin in Chronic Stress.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- The intersection between ghrelin, metabolism and circadian rhythms.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2024Review
- To eat or not to eat: A role for ghrelin and LEAP2 in eating disorders?Neuroscience applied · 2024Review
- What influences food choices in anorexia nervosa? Disentangling cognitive and emotional components of decision-making by translational research.Neuroscience applied · 2024Review
- Combined Computational-Biochemical Approach Offers an Accelerated Path to Membrane Protein Solubilization.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2023Article
- Article
- Metabolic hormone action in the VTA: Reward-directed behavior and mechanistic insights.Physiology & behavior · 2023Review
- Neuropeptides Modulate Feeding via the Dopamine Reward Pathway.Neurochemical research · 2023Review
- Hindbrain ghrelin and liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2, ligands for growth hormone secretagogue receptor, bidirectionally control food intake.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2023Article
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The decision to eat is strongly influenced by non-homeostatic factors such as food palatability. Indeed, the rewarding and motivational value of food can override homeostatic signals, leading to increased consumption and hence, obesity. Ghrelin, a gut-derived orexigenic hormone, has a prominent role in homeostatic feeding. Recently, however, it has emerged as a potent modulator of the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward pathway, suggesting a role for ghrelin in food reward. Here, we sought to determine whether ghrelin and its receptors are important for reinforcing motivation for natural sugar reward by examining the role of ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1A) stimulation and blockade for sucrose progressive ratio operant conditioning, a procedure used to measure motivational drive to obtain a reward. Peripherally and centrally administered ghrelin significantly increased operant responding and therefore, incentive motivation for sucrose. Utilizing the GHS-R1A antagonist JMV2959, we demonstrated that blockade of GHS-R1A signaling significantly decreased operant responding for sucrose. We further investigated ghrelin's effects on key mesolimbic reward nodes, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc), by evaluating the effects of chronic central ghrelin treatment on the expression of genes encoding major reward neurotransmitter receptors, namely dopamine and acetylcholine. Ghrelin treatment was associated with an increased dopamine receptor D5 and acetylcholine receptor nAChRβ2 gene expression in the VTA and decreased expression of D1, D3, D5 and nAChRα3 in the NAcc. Our data indicate that ghrelin plays an important role in motivation and reinforcement for sucrose and impacts on the expression of dopamine and acetylcholine encoding genes in the mesolimbic reward circuitry. These findings suggest that ghrelin antagonists have therapeutic potential for the treatment of obesity and to suppress the overconsumption of sweet food.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.