Appetite Hormone Glucagon May Prevent Obese People From Feeling Full

A new study shows that a hormone that controls appetite may lose it's ability to help obese individuals after they have consumed a full meal.

Yet the study also found that the appetite hormone known as glucagon suppresses hunger pangs in people with type 1 diabetes.

Glucagon is a hormone that's produced by the pancreas, along with insulin, and helps control levels of glucose in the blood. It has the opposite effect of insulin and increases glucose level in the blood. The drug is a synthetic version of human glucagon and is manufactured by a genetic engineering through the bacteria Escherichia colia. It's commonly used to increase the blood glucose level in severe hypoglycemia (low blood glucose), which can often occur in diabetic patients.

"Once a person becomes obese, glucagon no longer induces feelings of fullness," lead author, Ayman M. Arafat, MD, of Charité-University Medicine in Berlin, Germany, said in a news release. "Further research is needed to determine why glucagon no longer suppresses appetite effectively in this population, even though they are otherwise healthy."

The study looked at 11 obese individuals, 13 people with type 1 diabetes and 13 people without the problem. The participants received injections of either glucagon or a placebo, at which afterwards, their appetites were measured via a satiety scale based on the hormone ghrelin.

Findings showed that there was relatively no difference in fullness between obese participants and those who received glucagon injections. Yet, on the other hand, participants who were lean or had type 1 diabetes reported feeling more satisfied after receiving the glucagon injection.

These findings could help develop better treatments for obesity and diabetes involving the therapeutic effects of glucagon.

More information regarding the study can be found in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.