Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with acromegaly usually presented symptoms of the hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH). GH may increase insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), affect energy homeostasis, and cause complications in cardiovascular, skeletal, or metabolic systems. Follistatin is a glycoprotein with various biologic functions that plays a role in adipocyte differentiation, muscle stimulation, anti-inflammation and energy homeostasis. We evaluated the serum levels of follistatin in patients with acromegaly.

Subjects and methods: Forty acromegalic patients (15 male and 25 female) with a mean age of 52.8±10.1 years were recruited. Correlations between follistatin and GH or IGF-1 were calculated.

Results: Serum levels of follistatin were negatively associated with GH and IGF-1 (β=−0.34, P=0.034, and β=−0.57, P<0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Follistatin is negatively associated with GH and IGF-1 in patients with acromegaly.