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July 24, 2006
Growth Hormone Helps Lipo Lipids (Reuters Health)
July 24, 2006 (Reuters Health)—Restoration of growth hormone levels to normal improves lipid kinetics in patients with HIV lipodystrophy syndrome (HLS), according to a report in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The growth hormone axis is commonly defective in patients with HIV lipodystrophy syndrome, the authors point out, with as many as 20% of men with HLS failing to respond to a standardized growth hormone stimulation test.
Dr. Ashok Balasubramanyam of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and colleagues investigated the effect of strictly physiologic normalization of growth hormone on lipid kinetic abnormalities in 7 HLS patients with concomitant growth hormone deficiency.
The team notes that they had previously shown that "accelerated total and net lipolysis with increased adipocyte reesterification and availability of free fatty acids for intrahepatic reesterification are key lipid metabolic abnormalities that underlie HLS."
Growth hormone replacement resulted in a significant decrease in net lipolysis and in the oxidation of plasma fatty acids, the authors report.
Glucose tolerance was normal in all subjects at baseline and treatment did not change glycated hemoglobin concentrations. Growth hormone treatment was, however, associated with significant increases in fasting plasma glucose concentration.
There was a trend toward decreased fat mass in the central compartment and increased fat mass in the peripheral compartment after growth hormone treatment, the researchers observe, and 6 of 7 patients showed improvements in the lipodystrophy score after treatment.
The authors conclude that in such patients "physiologic-dose growth hormone replacement improves the underlying lipid kinetic defects through marked reductions in total and net lipolysis and the availability of fatty acids for hepatic reesterification."
"The results," they add, "suggest that growth hormone deficiency contributes to the complex mechanism of adipocyte defects in HLS."
