Gender differences in ghrelin, nociception genes, psychological factors and quality of life in functional dyspepsia

Table 3 Expression of plasma ghrelin, gastric peproghrelin and nociception-related genes in different gender

Variables	Male			Female
	Control (n = 38)	FD (n = 39)	P value1	Control (n = 49)	FD (n = 65)	P value1
Plasma acylghrelin (fmol/mL, median [IQR])	15.9 (9.2-33.7)	10.4 (6.5-18.4)	0.017	12.2 (9.0-18.6)	11.4 (6.8-16.5)	0.348
Plasma des-acylghrelin (fmol/mL, median [IQR])	108.0 (31.8-212.9)	58.5 (28.9-134.3)	0.302	65.4 (38.2-111.0)	63.6 (32.2-108.0)	0.844
Ghrelin mRNA (median [IQR])	2.1 (0.5-4.2)	1.9 (0.4-9.1)	0.428	3.2 (1.0-6.1)	1.5 (0.3-4.7)	0.092
NGF mRNA (median [IQR])	1.2 (0.7-1.8)	1.8 (1.1-2.7)	0.002	0.9 (0.5-1.6)	1.4 (0.8-2.2)	0.119
GDNF mRNA (median [IQR])	1.2 (0.7-1.5)	1.6 (1.1-3.0)	0.003	0.9 (0.7-1.7)	1.9 (0.9-2.9)	0.018
TRPV1 mRNA (median [IQR])	1.1 (0.8-1.6)	1.4 (0.9-2.2)	0.014	0.9 (0.6-1.2)	1.4 (0.8-2.3)	0.089

1 Mann-Whitney test was used. FD: Functional dyspepsia; GDNF: Glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor; IQR: Interquartile range; NGF: Nerve growth factor; PDS: Postprandial distress syndrome; TRPV1: Transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor 1.