Chronic arthritis induces hypermetabolism and cachexia. Ghrelin is a gastrointestinal
hormone that has been proposed as a treatment to prevent cachexia. The aim of this work
was to examine the effect of administration of the ghrelin agonist growth hormone-releasing
peptide-2 (GHRP-2) to arthritic rats. Male Wistar rats were injected with Freund's adjuvant,
and 15 days later arthritic and control rats were daily injected with GHRP-2 (100 μg/kg) or
with saline for 8 days. Arthritis induced an increase in serum ghrelin (P< 0.01) and a …

MATERIALS AND METHODS Animals. Arthritic and control male Wistar rats were purchased
from Charles River (Barcelona, Spain) and weighed 150–175 g (6 wk) at the beginning of
the experiment. Arthritis was induced in the rats by an intradermal injection of 1 mg of heat-
inactivated Mycobacterium butyricum in incomplete Freund's adjuvant in the right paw.
Control animals were injected with mineral oil. The procedures followed the guidelines
recommended by the European Union for the care and use of laboratory animals and were …