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Clinical Studies |
Department of Medicine, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guys and St. Thomass Hospitals, St. Thomass Hospital, London, United Kingdom
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. S. B. Bowes, Department of Medicine, 4th Floor North Wing, St. Thomass Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London, United Kingdom SE1 7EH.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Recent studies have shown that GH has an important role in regulating protein metabolism. GH-deficient adults treated with GH had increased lean body mass, due to stimulation of protein synthesis, and decreased fat mass (4). GH has also been shown to counteract the net catabolic effects on protein metabolism of short term excess glucocorticoids in normal subjects (5) and patients receiving chronic glucocorticoid treatment (6). There is thus some rationale for the possible use of exogenous GH to counteract the net catabolic effect of excess endogenous steroids in Cushings syndrome. However, as GH has been shown to decrease the insulin sensitivity of glucose metabolism (7), any beneficial effect of GH on protein anabolism may be offset by an increase in insulin resistance. To examine this further, we undertook isotopic studies to investigate the effect of short term GH administration to patients with Cushings syndrome on protein and glucose metabolism.
| Subjects and Methods |
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Studies were performed in eight patients (aged 3063 yr) 1 week
before surgery for Cushings syndrome (Table 1
). The
diagnosis was established by the measurement of 0900 and 2400 h
cortisol concentrations, the 0900 h cortisol level after the
administration of 1 mg oral dexamethasone at 2300 h the previous
day, cortisol secretion rate, and low and high dose (2 and 6 mg)
dexamethasone suppression tests. In patients with pituitary-dependent
Cushings syndrome, all other pituitary function was normal. All
patients gave informed written consent, and the studies were approved
by St. Thomass Hospital ethics committee.
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Patients received sc injections of GH (0.07 U/kg·day)
for 7 days and were studied at 0900 h after an overnight fast
before treatment and then after 2 and 7 days of treatment. This dose of
GH has previously been shown to increase protein synthesis in
GH-deficient adults (4) and was chosen because Cushings syndrome
patients were likely to be GH resistant. One patient (no. 3) received
GH for only 2 days due to fluid retention and, therefore, was studied
before and after 2 days of treatment. All studies were performed in the
metabolic research area of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Day Center at
St. Thomas Hospital. A primed constant infusion of
[1-13C]leucine (1 mg/kg; 1 mg/kg·h) and
[6,6-2H2]glucose (170 mg; 102 mg/h; Mass
Trace, Somerville, NJ) was administered iv for 180 min with a priming
dose of sodium [13C]bicarbonate (0.2 mg/kg; mass trace).
Blood and breath samples were taken at 0, 150, 155, 160, 165, 170, and
180 min to measure the isotopic enrichment and concentration of
glucose,
-ketoisocaproic acid (
KIC) enrichment, leucine
concentration, and enrichment of expired CO2. Baseline
blood samples were also taken for the measurement of insulin,
insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), and C peptide concentrations.
Analytical methods
Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (5971A MSD,
Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA) and selected ion monitoring,
KIC
enrichment was measured as the quinoxalinol-trimethylsilyl derivative
at m/z 232 and 233 (8), and glucose enrichment was measured as the
glucose acetate boronate derivative at m/z 297 and 299 (9)
[within-assay coefficient of variation (CV) for both measurements,
<2%]. 13C enrichment of breath CO2 was
measured on a VG SIRA series II isotope ratio mass spectrometer (VG
Isotech, Cheshire, UK; within-assay CV, <1%). The CO2
production rate was measured at 0, 150, and 180 min with a Metabolic
Measurement Cart (Medical Graphics Corp., Minneapolis, MN). Plasma
leucine concentration was measured using an Alpha Plus II automated
amino acid analyzer (within-assay CV, 4%; Pharmacia, Cambridge, UK).
Insulin and C peptide were measured by double antibody RIA
(within-assay CV, 6% and 9%, respectively) (10).
The C peptide assay used an anti-C peptide antiserum (GP644) kindly donated by Prof. A. Rubenstein (Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL). Plasma cortisol was measured by RIA, using an iodinated label and a polyethylene glycol-assisted double antibody method, and the cortisol secretion rate was determined by isotope dilution using a modification of the method of Brooks et al. (11). The plasma glucose concentration was measured on a Clandon Scientific Glucose Analyzer (within-assay CV, 2%; Yellow Springs Instrument Co., Yellow Springs, OH), and plasma total IGF-I was determined by RIA after an ethanol-hydrochloric acid extraction (within-assay CV, 7%) (12). Lean body mass was measured by bioelectrical impedance (Holtain, UK).
Measurements of leucine and glucose metabolism were calculated using
standard isotope dilution equations for steady state conditions (13).
The leucine production rate (Ra; a measure of protein degradation) was
calculated using
KIC enrichment rather than plasma leucine
enrichment, as it has been shown to give a better estimate of the
intracellular enrichment of leucine (14). Leucine and glucose MCR were
calculated as: MCR = Rd/plasma concentration, where Rd (rate of
disappearance) = Ra, since subjects were studied in steady state.
The nonoxidative leucine disappearance rate (NOLD; a measure of protein synthesis) was calculated as the difference between the leucine production rate and the oxidation rate. The relative proportion of leucine cleared into the oxidative pathway and the protein synthetic path was determined by dividing the relevant flux by the plasma leucine concentration.
Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA and Fishers least squares difference test. P < 0.05 was taken as showing a significant difference.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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Before treatment of the patients with GH, IGF-I levels were within the age-matched normal range, as reported in a previous study (15). Although short term glucocorticoid administration has been shown to stimulate GH secretion, long term glucocorticoid excess has been shown to inhibit spontaneous GH secretion (16) and GH secretion in response to GHRH (17). Hepatic production of IGF-I is dependent on both GH and insulin (18, 19); thus, the diabetogenic action of glucocorticoids with concomitant increased insulin secretion may explain why IGF-I levels remain within the normal range in Cushings syndrome in the face of reduced GH secretion. In the present study short term GH administration increased IGF-I significantly, and after 7 days, IGF-I concentrations were just outside the normal range in three of the patients.
There was an increase in fasting glucose, insulin, and C peptide in all patients in response to GH treatment. There was a trend for an increase in glucose Ra and a reduction in glucose MCR, but these did not reach statistical significance; however, they may account for the increase in plasma glucose observed. These effects are in keeping with the known effects of GH on glucose metabolism (20).
The concentration of amino acids, in particular the branched chain amino acids, has been shown to be important in the control of protein synthesis both in vivo (21) and in vitro (22). An acute infusion of IGF-I in man (23) and dogs (24) has been shown to result in a marked decrease in amino acid concentrations due to a decrease in proteolysis, but these studies were unable to demonstrate an effect of IGF-I on protein synthesis. However, when an amino acid clamp technique was used to prevent a decrease in amino acid concentrations, IGF-I was shown to increase protein synthesis (25). In the present study the fasting leucine concentration decreased due to an increase in leucine metabolic clearance in response to GH treatment. Despite the marked fall in the leucine concentration, the rate of protein synthesis was maintained. It is possible that the decrease in the leucine concentration may be due to a change in leucine kinetics in the postprandial state. When the fraction of metabolic clearance of leucine from plasma attributable to protein synthesis was examined, this was found to markedly increase after GH administration. This rise in leucine metabolic clearance demonstrated that GH has an anabolic effect on protein metabolism in these patients mediated through increased efficiency in substrate extraction, possibly indicating an increase in amino acid transport. Inoue and co-workers (26) recently reported a stimulatory effect of GH on amino acid uptake from the human ileum and jejenum consistent with an increase in the number of functional carriers in the brush-border membrane. The increase in leucine MCR observed in the present study may be in keeping with this effect of GH stimulating the availability of amino acid transporters. This might indicate that GH has a role in regulating amino acid transporters, analogous to that of insulin with glucose transporters. These anabolic effects are probably mediated by GH rather than the concomitant rise in insulin, as previous studies have shown insulin to reduce whole body protein breakdown, with no effect on whole body protein synthesis (27, 28).
It has previously been demonstrated that GH has powerful protein anabolic effects in normal subjects and GH-deficient adults (4, 29). GH has been shown to promote positive nitrogen balance in postoperative patients (30), burn and trauma patients (31, 32), and patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (33). There have been no previous studies to determine the effects of GH treatment in patients with Cushings syndrome. However, in patients receiving chronic glucocorticoid treatment, GH treatment for 7 days has been shown to increase nitrogen balance (34) and protein synthesis (6), whereas in normal volunteers, GH has been shown to counteract the net catabolic effects of excess glucocorticoids on protein metabolism (5).
This study demonstrated that preoperative GH treatment of patients with Cushings syndrome decreased amino acid concentrations and increased the MCR of leucine. The increased clearance of leucine into the protein synthetic pathway provides evidence that GH treatment warrants further investigation as a possible therapeutic agent in Cushings syndrome. However, GH treatment was also associated with insulin resistance, as shown by the increases in glucose, insulin, and C peptide concentrations.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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Received February 29, 1996.
Revised August 23, 1996.
Accepted September 11, 1996.
| References |
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-ketoisocaproate during a
L-[1-13C]leucine infusion in man: a
method for measuring human intracellular leucine tracer environment. Metab Clin Exp. 31:11051112.
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