Background: Alcohol stimulates appetite. Ghrelin, obestatin, glucagon-like peptide 1 and leptin are putative mediators.
Objective: We studied whether alcohol ingestion affects serum levels of these peripheral hormones, and if gastroprotective sucralfate prevents such an effect.
Materials and methods: Ten participants were investigated on four occasions. On one alcohol was ingested; on another alcohol was given after pretreatment with sucralfate; on a third water was ingested; and on a fourth sucralfate was ingested followed by water. Serum hormones and ethanol concentrations were determined.
Results: The ghrelin and leptin levels fell after ingestion of alcohol, whereas the obestatin and GLP-1 levels remained unchanged. Sucralfate did not affect any of the basal four hormone levels, nor the ghrelin or leptin responses to alcohol.
Conclusions: An appetite-stimulating effect of alcohol is hardly mediated by any of the hormones studied in this investigation, as the GLP-1 and obestatin levels were unaffected by alcohol, the ghelin level decreased, and leptin - although declining after alcohol - has not previously been found to have short-term inhibitory effect on hunger.