Elsevier

Regulatory Peptides

Volume 49, Issue 2, 10 December 1993, Pages 109-117
Regulatory Peptides

Regular paper
Alterations in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid levels of neuropeptides in idiopathic senile anorexia

https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-0115(93)90432-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of three well-known satiety neuropeptides, cholecystokinin (CCK), somatostatin and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), along with two powerful orexigenic neuropeptides, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and β-endorphin have been measured in elderly persons with idiopathic anorexia and normal weight healthy subjects in a similar age range. Plasma and CSF immunoreactivity levels of the two main fractions of CCK (CCK8s and CCK33) after being separated by HPLC were measured by a radioimmunoassay (RIA) developed in our laboratory, whereas the other neuropeptides were assayed by commercially available RIA kits. Elderly underweight anorectic patients had significantly lower levels of β-endorphin but increased concentrations of NPY in both plasma and CSF when compared to controls. In addition to significantly higher levels of CCK8s but not CCK33 in plasma, we found a trend to higher CSF concentrations of CCK8s and a positive correlation between the body mass index and either β-endorphin (r=0.58, P<0.05) or CCK8s (r=0.69, P<0.01) concentrations in CSF in the anorectic group. CSF somatostatin concentrations were decreased significantly, but plasma somatostatin levels and plasma and CSF concentrations of CGRP were similar in senile anorectics and controls. Treatment of five anorectic patients with megestrol acetate, 480 mg daily for 6 months, reversed only the decrease in CSF β-endorphin levels but did not normalize the body weight or the fat body mass. On the basis of our findings, we hypothesize that a decrease in CSF β-endorphin concentration along with a rise in plasma levels of CCK8s might be accounted for the primary anorexia of aging.

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