Endocrine Abstracts

Context: Abdominally obese individuals have relative hyposomatotropism, elevated serum markers of inflammation, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Objective: The aim was to study the effect of GH treatment on serum levels of inflammatory markers and vascular adhesion molecules in postmenopausal women with abdominal obesity.

Design: Forty postmenopausal women aged 51–63 yrs with abdominal obesity received GH (0.67 mg/d) in a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled 12-month trial. Measurements of inflammatory markers in serum: interleukin-6 (IL-6), highly sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP), and amyloid polypeptide A (SAA), and markers of endothelial function: selectin, vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), intercellular molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were performed at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of treatment.

Results: The GH and placebo group were comparable at baseline in terms of age, BMI, waist circumference, IGF-1, smoking habits and antihypertensive treatment. After 12 months, mean IGF-I SD score was 0.9±1.5 and – 0.8±0.6 in the GH and placebo groups, respectively. The 12-month GH treatment reduced serum levels of CRP and IL-6 as compared with placebo (P=0.03 and P=0.05, respectively), whereas the markers of endothelial function were unaffected. Within the GH treated group, serum CRP level showed a reduction from 4.3±4 at baseline to 3.0±3 mg/L after 12 months (P=0.05) and serum IL-6 level was reduced from 4.4±2 to 3.3±2 ng/L (P<0.01).

Conclusion: GH treatment in postmenopausal women with abdominal obesity reduced serum levels of inflammatory markers, suggesting that the risk of CVD was reduced. There was no detectable effect of the GH treatment on endothelial function evaluated using measures of vascular adhesion molecule levels in serum.