ECE2010 Poster Presentations Neuroendocrinology and Pituitary (<emphasis role="italic">Generously supported by Novartis</emphasis>) (125 abstracts)
Basal and stimulated GH secretion in Cushing's syndrome: effects of ghrelin and GHRH+arginine
Andreea Picu 1 , Elisa Marinazzo 1 , Flavia Prodam 2 , Fabio Broglio 1 , Sara Belcastro 2 , Gianluca Aimaretti 2 , Roberta Giordano 3 , Ezio Ghigo 1 & Emanuela Arvat 1
1University of Turin, Turin, Italy; 2Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy; 3Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
GH secretion is usually impaired in active Cushing’s syndrome (CS), due to concomitant mechanisms, including diminished GHRH and/or increased somatostatin release and impaired pituitary somatotrope responsiveness. Differently, IGF1 levels not parallel GH insufficiency in CS, being reported reduced, normal or increased. Both ghrelin and GHRH+arginine (ARG) are powerful GH secretagogues, influenced by age and/or BMI. In 27 CS (42.7±2.9 years, 28.8±0.9 kg/m2) we evaluated the GH response to both ghrelin (n=27) and GHRH+ARG (n=15), comparing them with those in 27 healthy controls (NS) (43.5±4.1 years, 26.0±1.3 kg/m2). Basal IGF1 levels were assayed in all the subjects. Both ghrelin and GHRH+ARG induced a lower (P<0.05) GH response in CS (28.2±4.0 and 13.5±2.6 μg/l, respectively) than in NS (64.4±6.1 and 39.4±5.2 μg/l, respectively). Similarly to NS, in CS GH levels after ghrelin were higher (P<0.05) than after GHRH+ARG. Differently to NS, in CS both ghrelin- and GHRH+ARG-induced GH levels were independent of age and BMI. A severe GHD was shown in six patients, based on standard and BMI-correlated GH cut-off levels for GHRH+ARG test. No association between GH peaks after both tests and HPA parameters (UFC, basal cortisol levels or peaks cortisol to ghrelin) were found, while IGF1 levels were positively correlated (P<0.01) with basal cortisol in CS. This study shows that: chronic hypercortisolism induces a dissociation between somatotrope and IGF1 secretion, probably due to an inhibitory effect at hypothalamic/pituitaric level associated with a stimulatory hepatic action; the GH-releasing effect of ghrelin in CS is higher than GHRH+ARG; chronic hypercortisolism is likely to override the influence of age and BMI on both basal and stimulated GH/IGF1 activity; testing with ghrelin, given appropriate hormonal cut-off levels, associated with basal IGF1, may be suggested for the assessment of somatotrope function in active phase and possibly during the follow up of treated CS patients.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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