Growth Hormone Therapy and Lipid Profile

Untargeted LC/MS-Based Metabolic Phenotyping of Hypopituitarism in Young Males

Objective: Hypopituitarism (Hypo-Pit) is partial or complete insufficiency of anterior pituitary hormones. Besides hormone metabolism, the global metabolomics in Hypo-Pit are largely unknown. We aimed to explore potential biomarkers to aid in diagnosis and personalized treatment.

Methods: Using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods, we identified 72 differentially abundant features through liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry, obtained in 134 males with Hypo-Pit and 90 age matched healthy controls.

Results: Hypopituitarism exhibits an increased abundance of metabolites involved in amino acid degradation and glycerophospholipid synthesis, but decreased content of metabolites in steroid hormone synthesis and fatty acid beta-oxidation. Significantly changed metabolites included creatine, creatinine, L-alanine, phosphocholines, androstenedione, hydroprenenolone, and acylcarnitines. In Hypo-Pit patients, the increased ratio of creatine/creatinine suggested reduced creatine uptake and impaired creatine utilization, whereas the decreased level of beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetylcarnitine (C2) and a significantly decreased ratio of decanoylcarnitine (C10) to free carnitine suggested an impaired beta-oxidation. Furthermore, the creatine/creatinine and decanoylcarnitine/carnitine ratio were identified as diagnostic biomarkers for Hypo-Pit with AUCs of 0.976 and 0.988, respectively. Finally, we found that the creatinine and decanoylcarnitine/carnitine ratio could distinguish cases that were sensitive vs. resistant to human chorionic gonadotropin therapy.

Conclusion: We provided a global picture of altered metabolic pathways in Hypo-Pit, and the identified biomarkers in creatine metabolism and beta-oxidation might be useful for the preliminary screening and diagnosis of Hypo-Pit.

Human growth hormone level decreased in women aged <60 years but increased in men aged >50 years

To investigate the relationship amongst human growth hormone (HGH), sex, and age groups.A cross-sectional study was conducted on a health check-up population from Wannan area of China from 2014 to 2016. The study involved 6843 individuals aged 23 to 85 years. Logistic regression analysis and smooth curve were applied to determine the relationship amongst age, sex, and HGH.The average level of HGH in the population was 0.37 ± 0.59 ng/mL. There were significant differences in sex, age, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and glucose (GLU) amongst different quartiles of HGH (P < .001). A U-shape relationship was established between HGH and age. After sex stratification, the results showed that the thresholds of age were 60 years in women, and 50 years in men, after adjusting for body mass index, triglycerides, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose. Logistic regression showed that HGH level decreased in women aged <60 years (OR = 1.472, P < .001) and increased in men aged >50 years (OR = 0.711, P < .001). So the distributive characteristics of HGH concentration vary with sex and age group.