The aim of this work was to study the effect of chronic activation of the immune system on the somatotropic axis. Accordingly, the changes in growth hormone (GH) secretion, circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs) in response to endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration were examined in adult male Wistar rats. Acute LPS injection (2.5, 25 or 250 microg/kg) increased serum corticosterone in a dose-dependent manner and decreased serum levels of insulin and IGF-I, serum GH concentration declined linearly as the LPS dose increased. Western ligand blot showed an increase in the 33 kDa band (corresponding to IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2) in the rats that received the highest dose of LPS (250 microg/kg). Chronic LPS administration (250 microg/kg daily for 8 days) significantly decreased body weight, serum levels of IGF-I and pituitary GH content, whereas it increased circulating IGFBP-3 (47 kDa band), IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2 (33 kDa band) and the 24 kDa band (which possibly corresponds to IGFBP-4). Serum concentration of corticosterone and hypothalamic somatostatin content were also increased by chronic LPS treatment. These data suggest that the decrease in GH and IGF-I secretion and the increase in circulating IGFBPs are important mechanisms in body weight loss during chronic inflammation.
Journal of Endocrinology is committed to supporting researchers in demonstrating the impact of their articles published in the journal.
The two types of article metrics we measure are (i) more traditional full-text views and pdf downloads, and (ii) Altmetric data, which shows the wider impact of articles in a range of non-traditional sources, such as social media.
More information is on the Reasons to publish page.
Sept 2018 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Full Text Views | 436 | 303 | 24 |
PDF Downloads | 372 | 172 | 10 |