Blocking production of a hormone called ghrelin, which creates the sensation of hunger, could be the answer to obesity, a problem that has become a major reason of concern in the US, where two-thirds of the populations are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s true that it’s only a lab experiment on pigs for now, but researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are confident that if a similar procedure could be done safely in humans, it may help people fight obesity.

For the study, Dr. Aravind Arepally, clinical director of the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, and associate professor of radiology and surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, used 10 healthy pigs because pigs have human-like anatomy and physiology.

The pigs were weighed and blood samples were taken to determine their baseline ghrelin levels. Then the researchers injected a chemical called sodiaum morrhuate (a chemical that destroys blood vessels) into blood vessels supplying a very specific part of the stomach called fundus in order to cut off production of the hunger hormone ghrelin.

“With gastric artery chemical embolization, called GACE, there’s no major surgery. In our study in pigs, this procedure produced an effect similar to bariatric surgery by suppressing ghrelin levels and subsequently lowering appetite,” Arepally said.

After the procedure, pigs given the chemical stopped gaining weight, while the others continued to fatten, increasing their body weight as much as 8.6 percent. The procedure reduced ghrelin production by as much as 80 percent.

The procedure appears to have no major side effects like in the case of bariatric surgery, which involves cutting off part of the stomach and sometimes small intestine so that people eat less and so their bodies have less time to digest food. About 205,000 Americans had bariatric surgery last year, their number increasing more than fivefold in five years, according to a report in the journal Lancet published last year.

Whether the procedure is going to be successful in humans too remains to be seen, as many studies have shown that treating obesity in animals is far easier than treating obesity in humans.

“Appetite is complicated because it involves both the mind and body. Ghrelin fluctuates throughout the day, responding to all kinds of emotional and physiological scenarios. Certain stresses can cause ghrelin to bump up. Some people, when they try to lose weight, the ghrelin starts to go up – the ghrelin fights the diet,” Arepally said.

However, if the procedure proves to be efficient in humans too, it “would make an enormous difference in choices and outcomes for obese people,” he added.

The study findings were published in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Radiology. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.