A double antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA) for ghrelin has been developed and characterized. Antisera against the human ghrelin conjugated to bovine serum albumin (BSA) were produced in the rabbit. Since the ghrelin of human and rat are close homologies, this antiserum (No. YJC 7-36) is cross-reacted (100%) to rat ghrelin. Therefore, it can be applied to both human and rat RIA of ghrelin for measurement of ghrelin in serum. No cross-reactivities with human insulin, rat growth hormone, somatostatin, and glucagon were detected in this RIA system. Very weak cross-reactivity with human growth hormone was found (0.65%). Sensitivity of the RIA was 300 pg per assay tube. The within-assay precision of serum samples were 4.8% in the human being and 8.7% in the rat. The between-assay precision was 9.4% in human being and 9.0% in rats. The serum ghrelin levels of 12 rats were 1.87±0.29 ng/ml in non-fasting status, but 4.28±0.58 ng/ml in fasted rats.