cosyntropin and Starvation

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been proposed to be susceptible to fetal programming, the process by which an adverse fetal environment elicits permanent physiological and metabolic alterations predisposing to disease in later life. It is hypothesized that fetal exposure to poor circumstances alters the set point of the HPA axis, leading to increased HPA axis activity and subsequent increased cortisol concentrations. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to famine during different periods of gestation is associated with increased activity of the HPA axis.. We assessed plasma cortisol concentrations after a dexamethasone suppression and an ACTH1-24 -stimulation test in a group of 98 men and women randomly sampled from the Dutch famine birth cohort. Cohort members were born as term singletons around the 1944-1945 Dutch famine.. Cortisol profiles after dexamethasone suppression and ACTH1-24 stimulation were similar for participants exposed to famine during late, mid- or early gestation (P = 0.78). Cortisol concentrations after dexamethasone suppression test did not differ between those exposed and those unexposed to famine in utero (mean difference -2% (95% confidence interval (CI) -27 to 23)). Neither peak cortisol concentration (20 nmol/l (95% CI -27 to 66)), cortisol increment (-5 nmol/l (95% CI -56 to 47)) or cortisol area under the curve post-ACTH1-24 injection (4% (95% CI -4 to 12)) differed between exposed and unexposed participants.. Prenatal famine exposure does not seem to affect HPA axis activity at adult age, at least not at the adrenal level. This does not exclude altered HPA axis activity at the levels of the hippocampus and hypothalamus.

Topics: Adult; Anthropometry; Birth Weight; Blood Glucose; Body Weight; Cohort Studies; Cosyntropin; Dexamethasone; Female; Humans; Hydrocortisone; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; Insulin; Linear Models; Male; Middle Aged; Pituitary-Adrenal System; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Starvation; Stimulation, Chemical

1. The metabolic behaviour of the fed hypophysectomized rabbit is quite different from that of the fed normal rabbit, i.e. in the hypophysectomized rabbit we found lasting hypoglycemia and a persistent high lipid plasma level. 2. Fasting induced a large and fast decrease in plasma glucose level which led to a coma; simultaneously it appeared that the hypophysectomized rabbit could not mobilize its adipose stores and that it quickly used up its plasma lipids, among them the essential fatty acids. In contrast, fasting in the normal rabbit induced a large fat mobilization from fat stores and the saturated fatty acids were essentially used, but at the same time plasma glucose remained near the level of control value. 3. Our in vitro results showed the important effect of synacthen in the lipolytic process of isolated fat cells.

Topics: Adipose Tissue; Animals; Blood Glucose; Carbohydrate Metabolism; Cosyntropin; Diabetic Coma; Hypophysectomy; Lipid Mobilization; Lipids; Pituitary Gland; Rabbits; Starvation