Endocrine Control of Body Composition in Infancy, Childhood, and Puberty

Abstract

Body composition exhibits marked variations across the early human lifetime. The precise physiological mechanisms that drive such developmental adaptations are difficult to establish. This clinical challenge reflects an array of potentially confounding factors, such as marked intersubject differences in tissue compartments; the incremental nature of longitudinal intrasubject variations in body composition; technical limitations in quantitating the unobserved mass of mineral, fat, water, and muscle ad seriatim; and the multifold contributions of genetic, dietary, environmental, hormonal, nutritional, and behavioral signals to physical and sexual maturation. From an endocrine perspective (reviewed here), gonadal sex steroids and GH/IGF-I constitute prime determinants of evolving body composition. The present critical review examines hormonal regulation of body composition in infancy, childhood, and puberty.

Early manifestation of cardiovascular disease risk factors in offspring of mothers with previous history of gestational diabetes mellitus

“…A steep weight gain was observed subsequently until school-age [33,34]. In contrast, BMI is high in the first year of offspring, decreasing between 2-5 years, and then an upward tendency from school age to puberty in the normal paediatric population [35]. In this study, there was no significant difference in the birth weight and the BMI of offspring up to 3 years of age between IGT and GDM mothers.…”

Growth hormone improves body composition, fasting blood glucose, glucose tolerance and liver triacylglycerol in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity and type 2 diabetes

“…It has positive effects on body composition [1]. Increased protein accretion in muscle and lipolysis in adipose tissue are biological consequences of growth hormone action and together promote a lean phenotype, as reviewed [2]. Despite its ability to improve body composition, growth hormone has also been described as a diabetogenic agent with the ability to inhibit the action of insulin [1,3,4].…”

Associations of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 gene polymorphisms with IGF-I activity and lipid parameters in adolescents

“…9,10 Although much of the growth-promoting effects of GH are mediated by IGF-I synthesized by the liver, IGF-I also binds weakly to insulin receptors, and thus may give rise to multiple effects on intermediary metabolism. In keeping with this notion, GH decreases body fat mass by stimulating lipolysis, 11 whereas IGF-I exerts lipogenic effects similar to those of insulin and inhibits GH actions by negative feedback. 12 Moreover, the effects of IGF-I are tightly regulated at various tissue levels by different binding proteins.…”

“…GH promotes protein synthesis and tissue growth and has potent lipolytic effects to mobilize energy stores and reduce body fat. 11 On the other hand, IGF-I exerts insulinomimetic effects by promoting energy storage and lipogenesis. It is noteworthy that the activity of IGF-I at a cellular level is tightly regulated by its binding proteins, especially IGFBP-3.…”