Gastrointestinal hormones and obesity

Abstract

Apart from digesting and absorbing nutrients, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract also possesses important sensing and signaling functions. It is estimated that more than 50 hormones and regulatory peptides are synthesized in the GI, primarily in response to food entering the digestive system [1, 2]. The majority of the bioactive peptides are generated from a larger precursor (pro-hormone) by proteolytic cleavage mediated by various proconvertases (PC), and followed by modifications such as amidation [3]. Gut hormones are secreted from specialized enteroendocrine cells, different types of which are located in the stomach (G-cells), duodenum (D-cells), and the large intestine (L-cells). © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.