Estimation of the size and shape of GH secretory bursts in healthy women using a physiological estradiol clamp and variable-waveform deconvolution model

Pulsatility of Hypothalamo-Pituitary Hormones: A Challenge in Quantification

Neuroendocrine systems control many of the most fundamental physiological processes, e.g., reproduction, growth, adaptations to stress, and metabolism. Each such system involves the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and a specific target gland or organ. In the quantification of the interactions among these components, biostatistical modeling has played an important role. In the present article, five key challenges to an understanding of the interactions of these systems are illustrated and discussed critically.

A pegylated growth hormone receptor antagonist, pegvisomant, does not enter the brain in humans

BACKGROUND

GH receptors exist in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and hypothalamus, possibly influencing mood, cortical blood flow, and neuronal growth and mediating negative feedback.

RATIONALE

Pegvisomant is a recombinant mutated GH molecule with high affinity, but little or no activating capability, for the GH receptor. It is used clinically as a GH antagonist.

HYPOTHESIS

Systemic pegvisomant enters brain interstitial fluid via putative choroid-plexus GH receptors, thereby allowing for antagonism of central actions of GH. SUBJECTS AND LOCATION: Six adults requiring a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination for nonneoplastic and noninflammatory syndromes participated at a tertiary medical center.

METHODS

Direct assays were conducted of serum and CSF pegvisomant concentrations 18-24 h after sc injection of pegvisomant (20 mg).

OUTCOMES

Median (range) concentrations of pegvisomant in serum were 215 (74-539) microg/liter and in CSF 0.035 (0.010-0.28) microg/liter (P=0.016). CSF drug levels were indistinguishable from assay threshold. Corresponding GH values were 0.29 (0.010-1.3) in serum and 0.075 microg/liter (0.01-0.13) in CSF. The geometric mean ratios of serum/CSF pegvisomant and GH concentrations were 5116:1 and 3.5:1, respectively, thus defining a more than 1400-fold difference between mutated and natural GH.

CONCLUSIONS

Based upon CSF measurements, a pegylated GH-receptor antagonist does not cross the human blood-brain barrier, thereby sparing inhibition of central nervous system GH actions. Thus, the capability of this antagonist to stimulate GH secretion predominantly reflects its actions outside the blood-brain barrier, such as via the median eminence and/or via suppression of IGF-I concentrations.

Endocrine pulse identification using penalized methods and a minimum set of assumptions

The detection of hormone secretion episodes is important for understanding normal and abnormal endocrine functioning, but pulse identification from hormones measured with short interval sampling is challenging. Furthermore, to obtain useable results, the model underlying hormone secretion and clearance must be augmented with restrictions based on biologically acceptable assumptions. Here, using the assumption that there are only a few time points at which a hormone is secreted, we used a modern penalized nonlinear least-squares setup to select the number of secretion events. We did not assume a particular shape or frequency distribution for the secretion pulses. Our pulse identfication method, VisPulse, worked well with luteinizing hormone (LH), cortisol, growth hormone, or testosterone. In particular, applying our modeling strategy to previous LH data revealed a good correlation between the modeled and measured LH hormone concentrations, the estimated secretion pattern was sparse, and the small and structureless residuals indicated a proper model with a good fit. We benchmarked our method to AutoDecon, a commonly used hormone secretion model, and performed releasing hormone infusion experiments. The results of these experiments confirmed that our method is accurate and outperforms AutoDecon, especially for detecting silent periods and small secretion events, suggesting a high-secretion event resolution. Method validation using (releasing hormone) infusion data revealed sensitivities and selectivities of 0.88 and 0.95 and of 0.69 and 0.91 for VisPulse and AutoDecon, respectively.

Pre- versus postmenopausal age, estradiol, and peptide-secretagogue type determine pulsatile growth hormone secretion in healthy women: studies using submaximal agonist drive and an estrogen clamp

CONTEXT

GH-releasing peptide (GHRP), GHRH, and somatostatin are physiological regulators of pulsatile GH secretion.

HYPOTHESIS

Age, independently of abdominal visceral fat (AVF) and basal (nonpulsatile) GH secretion, damps pulsatile GH secretion driven by physiological (rather than pharmacological) amounts of GHRP and GHRH in an experimentally controlled estradiol (E(2)) milieu.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A prospectively randomized, double-blind parallel-cohort study was conducted at an academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS

Community-dwelling healthy premenopausal (PRE, age 24 +/- 0.8 yr, n = 20) and postmenopausal (POST, age 63 +/- 1.8 yr, n = 22) women participated in the study.

INTERVENTIONS

Gonadal-axis down-regulation with leuprolide was followed by randomized addback of placebo or transdermal E(2) and separate-day iv bolus injections of a half-maximally stimulatory dose of GHRP-2 or GHRH (each 0.33 mug/kg).

ANALYSIS

Three-way analysis of covariance included main factors age, E(2) status, and secretagogue type and covariates AVF and basal GH secretion.

RESULTS

Submaximally stimulated pulsatile GH secretion was positively determined by PRE vs. POST age (P < 0.001), E(2) repletion vs. depletion (P = 0.001) and GHRP-2 vs. GHRH stimulation (P < 0.001), after adjustment for AVF and basal secretion. E(2) vs. placebo elevated fasting mean GH concentrations in both PRE and POST women (P = 0.006) but increased basal (nonpulsatile) GH secretion in PRE only (P = 0.002). PRE vs. POST age prolonged GHRH-driven GH secretory bursts by 36% (P = 0.006).

CONCLUSION

PRE vs. POST age, E(2) availability, and physiological peptide drive are triple determinants of pulsatile GH secretion independently of abdominal visceral fat and nonpulsatile GH secretion in healthy women.

Preservation of GHRH and GH-releasing peptide-2 efficacy in young men with experimentally induced hypogonadism

BACKGROUND

Somatostatin (SS), GHRH, GH-releasing peptide (GHRP), and the sex-steroid milieu regulate GH secretion.

OBJECTIVE

To test whether GHRH and GHRP remain effective secretagogs in the face of short-term hypogonadism.

DESIGN

Prospective, randomized double-blind.

METHODS

Healthy young men (n=24) received a GnRH agonist twice 3 weeks apart followed by placebo (n=13, Pl) or testosterone (n=11, testosterone) addback.

SUBJECTS

were then given consecutive i.v. infusions of l-arginine (to restrain SS outflow) and a maximally effective dose of GHRH or GHRP-2 (to test corresponding secretagog pathways).

RESULTS

GH secretion stimulated by l-arginine/GHRH and by l-arginine/GHRP-2 was unaffected by combined testosterone/estradiol (E(2)) depletion. The low testosterone/E(2) milieu decreased basal (nonpulsatile) GH secretion (P=0.038), without altering fasting pulsatile GH secretion or IGF1 or IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3 concentrations. IGFBP-1 (P<0.0001) and abdominal visceral fat (AVF, P=0.017) correlated negatively with fasting basal GH secretion. By contrast, IGF1 (P=0.0012) and IGFBP-3 (P=0.015) correlated positively with fasting pulsatile GH secretion. AVF (P=0.0024) was a negative determinant, and IGF1 a positive determinant (P=0.018), of GHRH-driven GH pulses. Responses to GHRP-2 were unrelated to any of these factors.

CONCLUSION

l-arginine/GHRP-2 appears to be an especially robust stimulus of GH secretion, since efficacy is unmodified by profound short-term hypogonadism, a range of AVF estimates, and a spectrum of IGF1, IGFBP-1, and IGFBP-3 concentrations. Whether robustness also applies to chronic hypogonadism is not known.

Factors other than sex steroids modulate GHRH and GHRP-2 efficacies in men: evaluation using a GnRH agonist/testosterone clamp

BACKGROUND

Sex steroids are prominent regulators of pulsatile GH secretion.

HYPOTHESIS

An experimentally controlled sex-steroid milieu will permit detection of nonsteroidal factors that determine GH secretion.

SUBJECTS

Eleven young (age, 24 +/- 0.99 yr) and 11 older (64 +/- 2.4 yr) men participated in the study.

LOCATION

The study was conducted at a tertiary medical center.

METHODS

The study consisted of GnRH-agonist down-regulation of the gonadal axis followed by fixed-dose testosterone (T) replacement (leuprolide/T clamp) and consecutive infusion of l-arginine and GHRH or GH-releasing peptide-2 (GHRP-2) to quantify peptide-secretagogue efficacies.

OUTCOMES

The experimental leuprolide/T clamp yielded statistically age-comparable total, bioavailable, and free T and estradiol (E(2)) concentrations. In this controlled milieu, sequential l-arginine/GHRH infusion stimulated 1.4-fold more (P = 0.021) and l-arginine/GHRP-2 1.3-fold more (P = 0.045) GH release in young than older men. Abdominal visceral fat (AVF) correlated negatively with both GHRH (P = 0.0006; R(2) = 0.39) and GHRP-2 (R(2) = 0.29) efficacy, whereas IGF-I positively predicted the same endpoints (R(2) = 0.25 to 0.30). In multivariate analysis, AVF emerged as a dominant negative determinant of GHRH efficacy (P = 0.002; R(2) = 0.41) and IGF-I as a primary positive determinant of GHRP-2 efficacy (P = 0.007; R(2) = 0.31).

CONCLUSION

During fixed T/E(2) availability, AVF contributes 41% of the GH-response variability to maximal GHRH drive, whereas IGF-I accounts for 31% of that for GHRP-2. Accordingly, a statistically equalized sex-steroid milieu permits dissection of age-independent and T/E(2)-independent modulators of GHRH and GHRP efficacy in men.