Gastric regeneration following Sleeve gastrectomy

Obesity has become a world-wide pandemic affecting hundreds of millions of people and is a major risk factor for various diseases. To this date, bariatric surgeries provide a relative safe and effective mean for treating obesity. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is a common type of bariatric surgery, which involves the excision of 80% of the stomach’s original volume. The profound weight loss following the surgery was originally accounted for its restrictive nature, but it is now well accepted that many physiological aspects are altered. Specifically, we are studying the regenerative response of the stomach after surgery.

Here we show gastric mucosal remodelling and thickening following SG in mice and in patients and that gastrin levels rise in plasma of patients within days after-surgery. We hypothesize that the trophic effect of gastrin on gastric mucosa mediates the observed proliferation of stem cells, promoting the stomach adaption to the surgery via proportional-integral feedback control, and are testing the importance of gastrin as a mediator of systemic metabolic response to SG.