In rats, giving ghrelin straight into the portal vein (the vein that carries blood from the gut to the liver) lowered the amount of GLP‑1 released after a glucose load. This effect needed the gut's neural network, the liver's vagus nerve, and sympathetic nerves, and it was blocked by a drug that stops the ghrelin receptor (GHSR1a). In other words, when ghrelin is high, it can dampen the GLP‑1 “incretin” response that helps control blood sugar and appetite.

As a regulator of food intake and energy metabolism, the role of ghrelin in glucose metabolism is still not fully understood. In this study, we determined the in vivo effect of ghrelin on incretin effect. We demonstrated that ghrelin inhibited the glucose-stimulated release of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) when infused into the portal vein of Wistar rat. Hepatic vagotomy diminished the inhibitory effect of ghrelin on glucose-stimulated GLP-1 secretion. In addition, phentolamine, a nonselective α receptor antagonist, could recover the decrease of GLP-1 release induced by ghrelin infusion. Pralmorelin (an artificial growth hormone release peptide) infusion into the portal vein could also inhibit the glucose-stimulated release of GLP-1. And growth hormone secretagogue receptor antagonist, [D-lys3]-GHRP-6, infusion showed comparable increases of glucose stimulated GLP-1 release compared to ghrelin infusion into the portal vein. The data showed that intraportal infusion of ghrelin exerted an inhibitory effect on GLP-1 secretion through growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1α (GHS1α receptor), which indicated that the downregulation of ghrelin secretion after food intake was necessary for incretin effect. Furthermore, our results suggested that the enteric neural net involved hepatic vagal nerve and sympathetic nerve mediated inhibition effect of ghrelin on incretin effect.