Ghrelin, insulin like growth factor-I and Insulin Levels in stunted Egyptian children / Shimaa Metwally Abdou ; Supervised Noha A. Elboghdady , Maha M. Elsawalhi , Awatif M. Abdelmaksoud

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Biochemistry

Stunting represents a world-wide nutritional problem which has many negative effects on child health and development. This study aimed to investigate the levels of some hormones and minerals affecting children growth and skeletal maturity as well as insulin resistance in nutritionally stunted Egyptian children. Children were selected and classified according to height for age Z score into stunted and control children. Stunted children were further subdivided according to weight for age Z score into normal and underweight groups. All stunted children exhibited significantly lower serum levels of insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I), calcium, and magnesium, and insignificantly higher total ghrelin levels than the control group. Only stunted underweight children showed significantly lower serum Zinc levels compared to control children. No significant differences were observed in serum glucose, and insulin levels, pancreatic beta cell function and insulin resistance between different studied groups. Stunting in Egyptian children could be attributed to low IGF-I concentration probably due to under nutrition. However, stunting did not cause any detectable impairment of glucose/insulin axis, pancreatic beta cell function and insulin resistance. These findings highlight the importance of early detection of abnormalities in growth hormone (GH) /IGF-I axis, and intervention strategies to improve micronutrient status in stunted Egyptian children

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