Growth hormone’s impact on adipose tissue and aging

Abstract

Aging results in progressive physiological changes that lead to declines in biological function. While numerous processes in various tissues contribute to aging, this review will focus on the role of growth hormone (GH) - particularly, GH’s actions in adipose tissue - in the aging process. Importantly, a reduction in the GH/insulin-like growth factor 1 (GH/IGF-1 axis) has repeatedly been shown to improve healthspan and lifespan in mice and attenuate age-related conditions in subsets of comparable clinical populations. GH also dramatically and uniquely alters adipose tissue mass, composition, function and distribution. As clinical studies are somewhat limited, much of our understanding of GH’s unique effect on adipose tissue and aging comes from mouse lines with specific alterations to the GH axis. Thus, this review will provide an overview of the healthspan and lifespan consequences of GH action in mouse lines with alterations in GH and briefly describe comparable clinical conditions. The review will also summarize the general changes in adipose tissue with normal aging as well as the unique changes in response to GH.