Link Between Increased Satiety Gut Hormones and Reduced Food Reward After Gastric Bypass Surgery for Obesity.

Postprandial increases in satiety gut hormones peptide YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and fibroblast growth factor-19 (FGF-19) after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery reduce food reward and brain reward system activation. Acute suppression of these hormones with octreotide increased food reward behavior and brain responses in RYGB patients but not in controls.

Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover studies were conducted involving RYGB patients, gastric banding patients, and nonobese controls. Participants received octreotide or saline to suppress gut hormones, followed by behavioral food reward tasks and functional MRI to assess brain responses to food stimuli.

Understanding how gut hormones influence food reward after gastric bypass can help develop new treatments for obesity that mimic surgery effects without invasive procedures. It highlights the hormonal control of appetite and food motivation.

Small sample sizes limit generalizability, and the acute hormone suppression may not fully represent long-term effects. The study design cannot prove causality definitively.