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Nathan Goodyear

Diet-induced obesity and low testosterone increase neuroinflammation and impair neural ... - 0 views

  • both obesity and low testosterone are also risk factors for neural dysfunction, including cognitive impairment [58–61] and development of AD
  • Levels of obesity and testosterone are often inversely correlated
  • diet-induced obesity causes significant metabolic disturbances and impairs central and peripheral nervous systems.
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  • both obesity and low testosterone are linked with promotion of inflammatory pathways [70–72] and exert harmful actions on the central [73–75] and peripheral [29,76] nervous systems
  • In general, obesity-related changes were worsened by low testosterone and improved by testosterone treatment; however, this relationship was not statistically significant in several instances. Further, our data suggest that a common pathway that may contribute to obesity and testosterone effects is regulation of inflammation
  • fasting blood glucose levels were independently and additively increased by GDX-induced testosterone depletion and high-fat diet
  • testosterone treatment significantly reduced fasting glucose under both the normal and high-fat diets, demonstrating potential therapeutic efficacy of testosterone supplementation
  • fasting insulin, insulin resistance (HOMA index), and glucose tolerance, low testosterone tended to exacerbate and or testosterone treatment improved outcomes.
  • testosterone status did not significantly affect body weight
  • testosterone’s effects likely do not indicate an indirect result on adiposity but rather regulatory action(s) on other aspects of metabolic homeostasis
  • Prior work in rodents has shown diet-induced obesity induces insulin resistance in rat brain [63] and that testosterone replacement improves insulin sensitivity in obese rats [64]. Our findings are consistent with the human literature, which indicates that (i) testosterone levels are inversely correlated to insulin resistance and T2D in healthy [30,65] as well as obese men [66], and (ii) androgen therapy can improve some metabolic measures in overweight men with low testosterone
  • it has been shown that TNFα has inhibitory effects on neuron survival, differentiation, and neurite outgrowth
  • Our data demonstrate that low testosterone and obesity independently increased cerebrocortical mRNA levels of both TNFα and IL-1β
  • Testosterone status also affected metabolic and neural measures
  • many beneficial effects of testosterone, including inhibition of proinflammatory cytokine expression
  • neuroprotection [80,81], are dependent upon androgen receptors, the observed effects of testosterone in this study may involve androgen receptor activation
  • testosterone can be converted by the enzyme aromatase into estradiol, which is also known to exert anti-inflammatory [82] and neuroprotective [83] actions
  • glia are the primary sources of proinflammatory molecules in the CNS
  • poorer survival of neurons grown on glia from mice maintained on high-fat diet
  • Since testosterone can affect glial function [86] and improve neuronal growth and survival [87–89], it was unexpected that testosterone status exhibited rather modest effects on neural health indices with the only significant response being an increase in survival in the testosterone-treated, high-fat diet group
  • significantly increased expression of TNFα and IL-1β in glia cultures derived from obese mice
  • testosterone treatment significantly lowered TNFα and IL-1β expression to near basal levels even in obese mice, indicating a protective benefit of testosterone across diet conditions
  • IL-1β treatment has been shown to induce synapse loss and inhibit differentiation of neurons
  • Testosterone status and diet-induced obesity were associated with significant regulation of macrophage infiltration
  • testosterone prevented and/or restored thermal nociception in both diet groups
  • a possible mechanism by which obesity and testosterone levels may affect the health of both CNS and PNS
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    Study points to obesity and low Testosterone contribution of neuroinflammation.  No effect of body weight was seen with TRT.  This animal model found similar positive effects of TRT in insulin sensitivity.  Obesity and low T increase inflammatory cytokine production: this study found an increase in TNF-alpha and IL-1beta and TRT reduced TNF-alpha and IL-1beta to near base-line.  Testosterone is neuroprotective and this study reviewed the small volume of evaded that pointed to benefit from estradiol.  Testosterone's effect on glial survival was positive but not significant.  Obesity and low T were found to be associated with increased macrophage infiltration in the PNS with increased TNF-alpha and IL-1beta.   Testosterone therapy improved peripheral neuropathy via its positive effects on nocicieption.
Nathan Goodyear

Lowered testosterone in male obesity: Mechanisms, morbidity and management Tang Fui MN,... - 0 views

  • The number of overweight people is expected to increase from 937 million in 2005 to 1.35 billion in 2030
  • Similarly the number of obese people is projected to increase from 396 million in 2005 to 573 million in 2030
  • By 2030, China alone is predicted to have more overweight men and women than the traditional market economies combined
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  • diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2), mechanistically implicated in this differential storage, [10] is regulated by dihydrotestosterone, [11] suggesting a potential role for androgens to influence the genetic predisposition to either the MHO or MONW phenotype.
  • bariatric surgery achieves 10%-30% long-term weight loss in controlled studies
  • The fact that obese men have lower testosterone compared to lean men has been recognized for more than 30 years
  • Reductions in testosterone levels correlate with the severity of obesity and men
  • epidemiological data suggest that the single most powerful predictor of low testosterone is obesity, and that obesity is a major contributor of the age-associated decline in testosterone levels.
  • healthy ageing by itself is uncommonly associated with marked reductions in testosterone levels
  • obesity blunts this LH rise, obesity leads to hypothalamic-pituitary suppression irrespective of age which cannot be compensated for by physiological mechanisms
  • Reductions in total testosterone levels are largely a consequence of reductions in sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) due to obesity-associated hyperinsulinemia
  • although controversial, measurement of free testosterone levels may provide a more accurate assessment of androgen status than the (usually preferred) measurement of total testosterone in situations where SHBG levels are outside the reference range
  • SHBG increases with age
  • marked obesity however is associated with an unequivocal reduction of free testosterone levels, where LH and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels are usually low or inappropriately normal, suggesting that the dominant suppression occurs at the hypothalamic-pituitary level
  • adipose tissue, especially when in the inflamed, insulin-resistant state, expresses aromatase which converts testosterone to estradiol (E 2 ). Adipose E 2 in turn may feedback negatively to decrease pituitary gonadotropin secretion
  • diabetic obesity is associated with decreases in circulatory E 2
  • In addition to E 2 , increased visceral fat also releases increased amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines, insulin and leptin; all of which may inhibit the activity of the HPT axis at multiple levels
  • In the prospective Massachusetts Male Aging Study (MMAS), moving from a non-obese to an obese state resulted in a decline of testosterone levels
  • weight loss, whether by diet or surgery, increases testosterone levels proportional to the amount of weight lost
  • fat is androgen-responsive
  • low testosterone may augment the effects of a hypercaloric diet
  • In human male ex vivo adipose tissue, testosterone decreased adipocyte differentiation by 50%.
  • Testosterone enhances catecholamine-induced lipolysis in vitro and reduces lipoprotein lipase activity and triglyceride uptake in human abdominal adipose tissue in vivo
  • in men with prostate cancer receiving 12 months of androgen deprivation therapy, fat mass increased by 3.4 kg and abdominal VAT by 22%, with the majority of these changes established within 6 months
  • severe sex steroid deficiency can increase fat mass rapidly
  • bidirectional relationship between testosterone and obesity
  • increasing body fat suppresses the HPT axis by multiple mechanisms [30] via increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, insulin resistance and diabetes; [19],[44] while on the other hand low testosterone promotes further accumulation of total and visceral fat mass, thereby exacerbating the gonadotropin inhibition
  • androgens may play a more significant role in VAT than SAT
  • men undergoing androgen depletion for prostate cancer show more marked increases in visceral compared to subcutaneous fat following treatment
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      Interesting: low T increases VAT, yet T therapy does not reduce VAT, yet T therapy reduces SAT.
  • irisin, derived from muscle, induces brown fat-like properties in rodent white fat
  • androgens can act via the PPARg-pathway [37] which is implicated in the differentiation of precursor fat cells to the energy-consuming phenotype
  • low testosterone may compound the effect of increasing fat mass by making it more difficult for obese men to lose weight via exercise
  • pro-inflammatory cytokines released by adipose tissue may contribute to loss of muscle mass and function, leading to inactivity and further weight gain in a vicious cycle
  • Sarcopenic obesity, a phenotype recapitulated in men receiving ADT for prostate cancer, [55] may not only be associated with functional limitations, but also aggravate the metabolic risks of obesity;
  • observational evidence associating higher endogenous testosterone with reduced loss of muscle mass and crude measures of muscle function in men losing weight
  • genuine reactivation of the HPT axis in obese men requires more substantial weight-loss
  • A number of intervention studies have confirmed that both diet- and surgically-induced weight losses are associated with increased testosterone, with the rise in testosterone generally proportional to the amount of weight lost
  • men, regardless of obesity level, can benefit from the effect of weight loss.
  • inconsistent effect of testosterone on VAT
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    to be read
Nathan Goodyear

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Testicular Axis Disruptions in Older Men Are Differentially Link... - 0 views

  • 0.4–2% annual decline
  • the age trend in free T was more substantial (−1.3% per annum)
  • The core hormonal pattern with increasing age is suggestive of incipient primary testicular dysfunction with maintained total T and progressively blunted free T associated with higher LH.
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  • Obesity was associated with progressively lower total and free T independent of the simultaneous decrease in SHBG.
  • our data highlight the fact that LH was unchanged or even lower in older men in the face of lower T in obesity, suggesting that there may be a failure at the hypothalamic-pituitary level.
  • a change in BMI from nonobese to obese may be equivalent to a 15 yr fall in T.
  • This pattern supports the hypothesis that different underlying mechanisms influence the functions of the HPT axis: age predominantly affects testicular function, whereas obesity impairs hypothalamic/pituitary function.
  • the effects of aging on testicular function can be moderated by increased LH compensation for many decades
  • obesity impairs hypothalamic/pituitary function independent of age, arguably an adaptive response for which there should be no compensatory mechanism.
  • the concurrent but opposite (and separate) effects of obesity and age on SHBG
  • SHBG was negatively associated with increasing strata of obesity
  • Obesity is associated with insulin resistance (28), and the increased circulating insulin inhibits hepatic SHBG synthesis
  • the SHBG increase with age may be related to relative IGF-I deficiency (27), although this has not been directly proven.
  • Obesity is associated with peripheral and central insulin resistance (30) and proinflammatory cytokine production (TNFα and IL-6) from adipocytes (31) and central nervous system endocannibinoid release (32), all of which are potential candidates for abrogating hypothalamic endocrine and downstream reproductive axis functions.
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      The HPA axis effect may be the result of inflammation.
  • The relationship between obesity and T can be bidirectional: low T may be the cause rather than consequence of obesity
  • chronic alcohol abuse is known to suppress LH (40), our data showed no significant association among the three hormones or SHBG and alcohol intake.
  • increase in total T in smokers occurs through a primary increase in SHBG with a compensatory rise in LH
  • the effects of obesity (BMI or waist circumference) was by far the most important determinant of variance in total T, whereas age per se was important for SHBG, LH, and free T with comorbidity and smoking being comparatively minor contributors
  • It is noteworthy that these predisposing lifestyle and health factors are modifiable. This implies that the apparent age-related decline in T may constitute a barometer of health and thus be potentially preventable and/or reversible.
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    Age induced decline in Testosterone is more associated with a decline in leydig cell function and thus elevated LH will be associated.  In contrast, obesity is more of a HPA axis disruption and thus LH may be normal to low.  The pulse amplitude is decrease.  No change in pulse frequency is noted.   With obesity, a decline in TT and fT was independent of SHBG. Aging is associated with a greater decrease in fT versus TT.
silver line

Obesity Treatment India at Affordable Cost - 0 views

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    Silver line, the top hospital in Kerala, India. Silver line provide detailed informatrion about obesity, leading causes of obesity, causes of childhood obesity, the endocrine system, endocrine disorders, obesity health risks, treatment of obesity, obesity medications and obesity complications
Nathan Goodyear

Leptin and Androgens in Male Obesity: Evidence for Leptin Contribution to Reduced Andro... - 0 views

  • in male obesity basal and LH-stimulated androgen levels are reduced and inversely correlated with circulating leptin
  • functional leptin receptors are present in rodent Leydig cells
  • it is conceivable that in males high leptin concentrations may have a direct inhibitory effect(s) on Leydig cell function.
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  • insulin is an important inhibitor of the synthesis of SHBG
  • no correlation between leptin and SHBG levels
  • SHBG reduction in obesity is a minor determinant of lowered androgen levels
  • SHBG can explain only up to 3% of the correlation
  • testicular T de novo production is impaired in obese men and that leptin seems to be the best hormonal predictor of this blunted response to LH stimulation
  • The low basal 17-OH-P levels found in massively obese men are consistent with a global impairment of Leydig cell steroidogenic function in this group of subjects.
  • These findings indicate that obese men have a FM-related defect in the enzymatic conversion of 17-OH-P to T, which is revealed by hCG stimulation.
  • Other studies have investigated the adrenal function in male obesity and have shown that basal cortisol and 17-OH-progesterone levels tend to decrease with the increase in the degree of obesity
  • High E2 can inhibit the expression and activity of the 17,20-lyase and may be responsible for this steroidogenic lesion
  • However, stimulated E2 levels were not higher in the obese than in controls, excluding the fact that the lower androgen response was due to an increased aromatization of T to E2 and that estrogens have a major role in the observed defect of 17,20-lyase activity in obese men.
  • the percentage increase in the 17-OH-progesterone to T molar ratio paralleled the increase in leptin levels of obese men
  • Multiple regression analysis indicated that the best hormonal predictor of the obesity-related reduction in T and FT basal levels and androgen changes after hCG stimulation was serum leptin concentration
  • insulin has no negative influences on androgen production in obese men
  • insulin is known to have stimulatory actions on T production that have been demonstrated in obese and normal weight men (57) and in Leydig cells in culture
  • the negative correlation between insulin and basal T can be partly explained by the inhibitory action of insulin on SHBG production
  • hypogonadal men have higher circulating leptin levels compared with hypogonadal patients under effective androgen substitution therapy
  • The impaired androgen response to LH stimulus was due to a defect in the enzymatic conversion of 17-OH-progesterone to T, which was disclosed by a leptin-related increase in 17-OH-progesterone to T ratio
  • Estrogens, which are inhibitory modulators of LH pulsatility and bioactivity
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    Leptin appears to be a good marker of low Testosterone.  This study proposes that the mechanism of action is potentially 2 fold: first, a decrease in LH release by leptin (kisspeptin?) and 2nd, a directed decrease in Testosterone production by the leydig cells in the testes.
Nathan Goodyear

Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome - - Satoshi Nishimura - D... - 0 views

  • Activation of inflammatory pathways in adipocytes impairs triglyceride storage and increases release of free fatty acids, an excess of which is known to induce insulin resistance in muscle and liver
  • recent studies have shown that large numbers of macrophages infiltrate obese adipose tissue,
  • It has been postulated that a paracrine loop involving free fatty acids and inflammatory cytokines establishes a vicious cycle between adipocytes and macrophages that propagates the inflammation
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  • not only does interrupting the accumulation of macrophages within obese adipose tissue suppresses adipose inflammation in various animal models, it also ameliorates systemic insulin resistance and metabolic abnormalities, suggesting macrophages are key effector cells involved in adipose inflammation
  • activation of the leukocyte adhesion cascade, a hallmark of inflammation
  • Thus, obese visceral adipose tissue is clearly a site of chronic inflammation
  • CD8+ T cells within obese adipose tissue induce activation and migration of monocytes/macrophages, and in cooperation with the adipose tissue, they also induce macrophage differentiation. At the same time, obese adipose tissue activates CD8+ T cells, creating a vicious cycle involving CD8+ T cells, macrophages, and obese adipose tissue that propagates local inflammation
  • In obese adipose tissue there is a shift to dominance of CD8+ and TH1 T cells, which appears to propagate inflammation
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    fascinating read how the immune system and resultant inflammation results in obesity.
Nathan Goodyear

JCI - Inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease - 0 views

  • metainflammation
  • The chronic nature of obesity produces a tonic low-grade activation of the innate immune system that affects steady-state measures of metabolic homeostasis over time
  • It is clear that inflammation participates in the link between obesity and disease
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  • Multiple inflammatory inputs contribute to metabolic dysfunction, including increases in circulating cytokines (10), decreases in protective factors (e.g., adiponectin; ref. 11), and communication between inflammatory and metabolic cells
  • adipose tissue macrophage (ATM)
  • Physiologic enhancement of the M2 pathways (e.g., eosinophil recruitment in parasitic infection) also appears to be capable of reducing metainflammation and improving insulin sensitivity (27).
  • increasing adiposity results in a shift in the inflammatory profile of ATMs as a whole from an M2 state to one in which classical M1 proinflammatory signals predominate (21–23).
  • The M2 activation state is intrinsically linked to the activity of PPARδ and PPARγ
  • well-known regulators of lipid metabolism and mitochondrial activity
  • Independent of obesity, hypothalamic inflammation can impair insulin release from β cells, impair peripheral insulin action, and potentiate hypertension (63–65).
  • inflammation in pancreatic islets can reduce insulin secretion and trigger β cell apoptosis leading to decreased islet mass, critical events in the progression to diabetes (33, 34)
  • Since an estimated excess of 20–30 million macrophages accumulate with each kilogram of excess fat in humans, one could argue that increased adipose tissue mass is de facto a state of increased inflammatory mass
  • JNK, TLR4, ER stress)
  • NAFLD is associated with an increase in M1/Th1 cytokines and quantitative increases in immune cells
  • Upon stimulation by LPS and IFN-γ, macrophages assume a classical proinflammatory activation state (M1) that generates bactericidal or Th1 responses typically associated with obesity
  • DIO, metabolites such as diacylglycerols and ceramides accumulate in the hypothalamus and induce leptin and insulin resistance in the CNS (58, 59)
  • saturated FAs, which activate neuronal JNK and NF-κB signaling pathways with direct effects on leptin and insulin signaling (60)
  • Lipid infusion and a high-fat diet (HFD) activate hypothalamic inflammatory signaling pathways, resulting in increased food intake and nutrient storage (57)
  • Maternal obesity is associated with endotoxemia and ATM accumulation that may affect the developing fetus (73)
  • Placental inflammation is a characteristic of maternal obesity
  • a risk factor for obesity in offspring, and involves inflammatory macrophage infiltration that can alter the maternal-fetal circulation (74
  • Of these PRRs, TLR4 has received the most attention, as this receptor can be activated by free FAs to generate proinflammatory signals and activate NF-κB
  • Nod-like receptor (NLR) family of PRRs
  • ceramides and sphingolipids
  • The adipokine adiponectin has long been recognized to have positive benefits on multiple cell types to promote insulin sensitivity and deactivate proinflammatory pathways.
  • adiponectin stimulates ceramidase activity and modulates the balance between ceramides and sphingosine-1-phosphate
  • Inhibition of ceramide production blocks the ability of saturated FAs to induce insulin resistance (101)
  • NF-κB, obesity also activates JNK in insulin-responsive tissues
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    must read to see our current knowledge on the link between inflammation and obesity.
Nathan Goodyear

Gut microbe levels are linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

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    Individuals with obesity and type II Diabetes been found to have significantly different gut bacteria populations compared to healthy individuals.  This is not new information.  The firmicutes:bacteroidetes ratio has been long known to be elevated in obese individuals vs those that are lean.  The question here is cause and effect.  Is the change in the bacterial population leading to obesity and type II diabetes?  Or is diabetes and obesity leading to changes in the bacterial population?  A heavy-laden carb diet is know to lead to a change to a more unhealthy gut bacterial population--maybe it is just a product of diet?  Maybe it is effected by vaginal delivery vs cesarean delivery?  Maybe breast feeding plays a role.  Maybe, all the above is required. The point is that the cause of obesity and type II diabetes may have its origins deep, deep in the...well you know. http://ow.ly/yqDML 
Nathan Goodyear

International Journal of Impotence Research - Obesity, low testosterone levels and erec... - 0 views

  • Studies have shown that ED may be an early biomarker of general endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis and CVD
  • testosterone treatment of hypogonadal young and older men improves sexual function, increases lean mass and decreases fat mass
  • In men with low serum testosterone (for example, <8 or 230 nmol l−1) with obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus, treatment with testosterone is warranted
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  • In obese middle-aged men, testosterone treatment reduced visceral adipocity, insulin resistance, serum cholesterol and glucose levels
  • testosterone replacement has a favorable impact on body mass, insulin secretion and sensitivity, lipid profile and blood pressure in hypogonadal men with the metabolic syndrome as well as type 2 diabetes mellitus
  • Testosterone significantly inhibits lipoprotein lipase activity, which reduces triglycerides uptake into adipocytes in the abdominal adipose tissue
  • testosterone treatment decreased endogenous inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-1β) and lipids (total cholesterol) and increased IL-10 in hypogonadal men
  • Testosterone treatment reduced leptin and adiponectin levels in hypogonadal type 2 diabetic men after 3 months of testosterone replacement
  • available data clearly show a relationship between obesity, low testosterone levels and ED
  • Obesity adversely affects endothelial function and lowers serum testosterone levels through the development of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome
  • Metabolic disturbances as well as production of cytokines and adipokines by inflamed fat cells may be causal factors in the development of ED
  • The onset of ED and the associated risk of CVD may be delayed through lifestyle modifications that affect obesity, such as diet and exercise
  • Very low testosterone levels contribute to the development of ED in obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus
  • Obesity is associated with low total testosterone levels that can be explained at least partially by lower sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in obese men
  • epidemiological studies have shown a negative correlation between BMI and total testosterone and to a lesser extent with free and bioavailable (biologically active) testosterone levels
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    Obesity is associated with low Testosterone and ED in men.
Nathan Goodyear

PPARs, Obesity, and Inflammation - 0 views

  • increase of 61% within 10 years
  • Many of the inflammatory markers found in plasma of obese individuals appear to originate from adipose tissue
  • obesity is a state of chronic low-grade inflammation that is initiated by morphological changes in the adipose tissue.
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  • secretion of MCP-1, resistin, and other proinflammatory cytokines is increased by obesity, the adipose secretion of the anti-inflammatory protein adiponectin is decreased
  • the peroxisome proliferators- activated receptor (PPAR) family are involved in the regulation of inflammation and energy homestasis
  • natural agonists, including unsaturated fatty acids and eicosanoids
  • PPARα also regulates inflammatory processes, mainly by inhibiting inflammatory gene expression
  • upregulation of COX-2 is seen in alcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and has been directly linked to the progression of steatosis to steatohepatitis, the inhibitory effect of PPARα on COX-2 may reduce steatohepatitis
  • PPARα agonists have a clear anorexic effect resulting in decreased food intake, evidence is accumulating that PPARα may also directly influence adipose tissue function, including its inflammatory status.
  • PPARα may govern adipose tissue inflammation in three different ways: (1) by decreasing adipocyte hypertrophy, which is known to be connected with a higher inflammatory status of the tissue [3, 11, 59], (2) by direct regulation of inflammatory gene expression via locally expressed PPARα, or (3) by systemic events likely originating from liver
  • PPARγ is considered the master regulator of adipogenesis
  • Unsaturated fatty acids and several eicosanoids serve as endogenous agonists of PPARγ
  • PPARγ2, which is adipose-tissue specific
  • two different molecular mechanisms have been proposed by which anti-inflammatory actions of PPARγ are effectuated: (1) via interference with proinflammatory transcription factors including STAT, NF-κB, and AP-1
  • and (2) by preventing removal of corepressor complexes from gene promoter regions resulting in suppression of inflammatory gene transcription
  • diet-induced obesity is associated with increased inflammatory gene expression in adipose tissue via adipocyte hypertrophy and macrophage infiltration
  • PPARγ is able to reverse macrophage infiltration, and subsequently reduces inflammatory gene expression
  • Inflammatory adipokines mainly originate from macrophages which are part of the stromal vascular fraction of adipose tissue [18, 19], and accordingly, the downregulation of inflammatory adipokines in WAT by PPARγ probably occurs via effects on macrophages
  • By interfering with NF-κB signaling pathways, PPARγ is known to decrease inflammation in activated macrophages
  • Recent data suggest that activation of PPARγ in fatty liver may protect against inflammation
  • PPARs may influence the inflammatory response either by direct transcriptional downregulation of proinflammatory genes
  • anti-inflammatory properties of PPARs in human obesity
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    PPARs play pivotal in obesity.  PPARs appear to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with obesity.  Downregulation of PPARs are associated with increased inflammation.  Natural PPARs include unsaturated fats and eicosanoids.
Nathan Goodyear

Testosterone and glucose metabolism in men: current concepts and controversies - 0 views

  • Around 50% of ageing, obese men presenting to the diabetes clinic have lowered testosterone levels relative to reference ranges based on healthy young men
  • The absence of high-level evidence in this area is illustrated by the Endocrine Society testosterone therapy in men with androgen deficiency clinical practice guidelines (Bhasin et al. 2010), which are appropriate for, but not specific to men with metabolic disorders. All 32 recommendations made in these guidelines are based on either very low or low quality evidence.
  • A key concept relates to making a distinction between replacement and pharmacological testosterone therapy
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  • The presence of symptoms was more closely linked to increasing age than to testosterone levels
  • Findings similar to type 2 diabetes were reported for men with the metabolic syndrome, which were associated with reductions in total testosterone of −2.2 nmol/l (95% CI −2.41 to 1.94) and in free testosterone
  • low testosterone is more predictive of the metabolic syndrome in lean men
  • Cross-sectional studies uniformly show that 30–50% of men with type 2 diabetes have lowered circulating testosterone levels, relative to references based on healthy young men
  • In a recent cross-sectional study of 240 middle-aged men (mean age 54 years) with either type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes or without diabetes (Ng Tang Fui et al. 2013b), increasing BMI and age were dominant drivers of low total and free testosterone respectively.
  • both diabetes and the metabolic syndrome are associated with a modest reduction in testosterone, in magnitude comparable with the effect of 10 years of ageing
  • In a cross-sectional study of 490 men with type 2 diabetes, there was a strong independent association of low testosterone with anaemia
  • In men, low testosterone is a marker of poor health, and may improve our ability to predict risk
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      probably the most important point made in this article
  • low testosterone identifies men with an adverse metabolic phenotype
  • Diabetic men with low testosterone are significantly more likely to be obese or insulin resistant
  • increased inflammation, evidenced by higher CRP levels
  • Bioavailable but not free testosterone was independently predictive of mortality
  • It remains possible that low testosterone is a consequence of insulin resistance, or simply a biomarker, co-existing because of in-common risk factors.
  • In prospective studies, reviewed in detail elsewhere (Grossmann et al. 2010) the inverse association of low testosterone with metabolic syndrome or diabetes is less consistent for free testosterone compared with total testosterone
  • In a study from the Framingham cohort, SHBG but not testosterone was prospectively and independently associated with incident metabolic syndrome
  • low SHBG (Ding et al. 2009) but not testosterone (Haring et al. 2013) with an increased risk of future diabetes
  • In cross-sectional studies of men with (Grossmann et al. 2008) and without (Bonnet et al. 2013) diabetes, SHBG but not testosterone was inversely associated with worse glycaemic control
  • SHBG may have biological actions beyond serving as a carrier protein for and regulator of circulating sex steroids
  • In men with diabetes, free testosterone, if measured by gold standard equilibrium dialysis (Dhindsa et al. 2004), is reduced
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      expensive, laborious process filled with variables
  • Low free testosterone remains inversely associated with insulin resistance, independent of SHBG (Grossmann et al. 2008). This suggests that the low testosterone–dysglycaemia association is not solely a consequence of low SHBG.
  • Experimental evidence reviewed below suggests that visceral adipose tissue is an important intermediate (rather than a confounder) in the inverse association of testosterone with insulin resistance and metabolic disorders.
  • testosterone promotes the commitment of pluripotent stem cells into the myogenic lineage and inhibits their differentiation into adipocytes
  • testosterone regulates the metabolic functions of mature adipocytes (Xu et al. 1991, Marin et al. 1995) and myocytes (Pitteloud et al. 2005) in ways that reduce insulin resistance.
  • Pre-clinical evidence (reviewed in Rao et al. (2013)) suggests that at the cellular level, testosterone may improve glucose metabolism by modulating the expression of the glucose-transported Glut4 and the insulin receptor, as well as by regulating key enzymes involved in glycolysis.
  • More recently testosterone has been shown to protect murine pancreatic β cells against glucotoxicity-induced apoptosis
  • Interestingly, a reciprocal feedback also appears to exist, given that not only chronic (Cameron et al. 1990, Allan 2013) but also, as shown more recently (Iranmanesh et al. 2012, Caronia et al. 2013), acute hyperglycaemia can lower testosterone levels.
  • There is also evidence that testosterone regulates insulin sensitivity directly and acutely
  • In men with prostate cancer commencing androgen deprivation therapy, both total as well as, although not in all studies (Smith 2004), visceral fat mass increases (Hamilton et al. 2011) within 3 months
  • More prolonged (>12 months) androgen deprivation therapy has been associated with increased risk of diabetes in several large observational registry studies
  • Testosterone has also been shown to reduce the concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines in some, but not all studies, reviewed recently in Kelly & Jones (2013). It is not know whether this effect is independent of testosterone-induced changes in body composition.
  • the observations discussed in this section suggest that it is the decrease in testosterone that causes insulin resistance and diabetes. One important caveat remains: the strongest evidence that low testosterone is the cause rather than consequence of insulin resistance comes from men with prostate cancer (Grossmann & Zajac 2011a) or biochemical castration, and from mice lacking the androgen receptor.
  • Several large prospective studies have shown that weight gain or development of type 2 diabetes is major drivers of the age-related decline in testosterone levels
  • there is increasing evidence that healthy ageing by itself is generally not associated with marked reductions in testosterone
  • Circulating testosterone, on an average 30%, is lower in obese compared with lean men
  • increased visceral fat is an important component in the association of low testosterone and insulin resistance
  • The vast majority of men with metabolic disorders have functional gonadal axis suppression with modest reductions in testosterone levels
  • obesity is a dominant risk factor
  • men with Klinefelter syndrome have an increased risk of metabolic disorders. Interestingly, greater body fat mass is already present before puberty
  • Only 5% of men with type 2 diabetes have elevated LH levels
  • inhibition of the gonadal axis predominantly takes place in the hypothalamus, especially with more severe obesity
  • Metabolic factors, such as leptin, insulin (via deficiency or resistance) and ghrelin are believed to act at the ventromedial and arcuate nuclei of the hypothalamus to inhibit gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRH) secretion from GNRH neurons situated in the preoptic area
  • kisspeptin has emerged as one of the most potent secretagogues of GNRH release
  • hypothesis that obesity-mediated inhibition of kisspeptin signalling contributes to the suppression of the HPT axis, infusion of a bioactive kisspeptin fragment has been recently shown to robustly increase LH pulsatility, LH levels and circulating testosterone in hypotestosteronaemic men with type 2 diabetes
  • A smaller study with a similar experimental design found that acute testosterone withdrawal reduced insulin sensitivity independent of body weight, whereas oestradiol withdrawal had no effects
  • suppression of the diabesity-associated HPT axis is functional, and may hence be reversible
  • Obesity and dysglycaemia and associated comorbidities such as obstructive sleep apnoea (Hoyos et al. 2012b) are important contributors to the suppression of the HPT axis
  • weight gain and development of diabetes accelerate the age-related decline in testosterone
  • Modifiable risk factors such as obesity and co-morbidities are more strongly associated with a decline in circulating testosterone levels than age alone
  • 55% of symptomatic androgen deficiency reverted to a normal testosterone or an asymptomatic state after 8-year follow-up, suggesting that androgen deficiency is not a stable state
  • Weight loss can reactivate the hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis
  • Leptin treatment resolves hypogonadism in leptin-deficient men
  • The hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis remains responsive to treatment with aromatase inhibitors or selective oestrogen receptor modulators in obese men
  • Kisspeptin treatment increases LH secretion, pulse frequency and circulating testosterone levels in hypotestosteronaemic men with type 2 diabetes
  • change in BMI was associated with the change in testosterone (Corona et al. 2013a,b).
  • weight loss can lead to genuine reactivation of the gonadal axis by reversal of obesity-associated hypothalamic suppression
  • There is pre-clinical and observational evidence that chronic hyperglycaemia can inhibit the HPT axis
  • in men who improved their glycaemic control over time, testosterone levels increased. By contrast, in those men in whom glycaemic control worsened, testosterone decreased
  • testosterone levels should be measured after successful weight loss to identify men with an insufficient rise in their testosterone levels. Such men may have HPT axis pathology unrelated to their obesity, which will require appropriate evaluation and management.
  •  
    Article discusses the expanding evidence of low T and Metabolic syndrome.
Nathan Goodyear

Obese Americans now outweigh the merely overweight | Reuters - 0 views

  • Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just under 6 percent are "extremely" obese.
  • More than one-third of adults, or over 72 million people, were obese in 2005-2006, the NCHS said in its report
  • In May, the CDC reported that 32 percent of U.S. children fit the definition of being overweight, 16 percent were obese and 11 percent were extremely obese.
  •  
    obesity in America
Nathan Goodyear

JAMA Network | JAMA | Trends in Obesity Among Adults in the United States, 2005 to 2014 - 0 views

  •  
    Obesity trends continue in the wrong direction.  According to most recent stats, 40% of American women are obese and 35% of men are obese.  Severe obesity sits at 10% for American women.
Nathan Goodyear

Adrenocortical dysregulation as a major player in insulin resistance and onset of obesity - 0 views

  • acute GC secretion during stress mobilizes peripheral amino acids from muscle as well as fatty acids and glycerol from peripheral fat stores to provide substrates for glucose synthesis by the liver
  • chronically elevated GC levels alter body fat distribution and increase visceral adiposity as well as metabolic abnormalities in a fashion reminiscent of metabolic syndrome
  • This local production may play an important role in the onset of obesity and insulin resistance.
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  • In adipocytes, cortisol inhibits lipid mobilization in the presence of insulin, thus leading to triglyceride accumulation and retention.
  • Since the density of GC receptors is higher in intra-abdominal (visceral) fat than in other fat depots, the activity of cortisol leading to accumulation of fat is accentuated in visceral adipose tissue (24, 158), providing a mechanism by which excessive endogenous or exogenous GC lead to abdominal obesity and IR
  • obese patients generally have normal or subnormal plasma cortisol concentrations
  • This may be explained by an increased intratissular/cellular concentration of cortisol in adipose tissues
  • Intracellular GC may be produced from recycling of GC metabolites such as cortisone in adipose tissues
  • Local GC recycling metabolism is mediated by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzymes (11β-HSD1 and 11β-HSD2
  • Cortisol also increases 11β-HSD1 expression in human adipocytes
  • In humans, elevated 11β-HSD1 expression in visceral adipose tissue is also associated with obesity
  • even if obese patients generally have normal or subnormal plasma cortisol concentrations (131, 158), triglyceride accumulation in visceral adipose tissue may be due, at least in part, to the local production of GC in insulin- and GC-responsive organs such as adipose tissue, liver, and skeletal muscle
  •  
    another nice article on the dysregulation of cortisol and its role in insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity.
Nathan Goodyear

Targeting gut microbiota in obesity: effects of prebiotics and probiotics : Article : N... - 0 views

  • gut microbes have a role in the host's metabolic homeostasis
  • lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
  • Associations between circulating LPS level, consumption of a high-fat diet and the presence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus have been confirmed in humans
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  • associations have been proposed between high-fat diet, metabolic endotoxemia and levels of inflammatory markers (TLRs and SOCS3) in mononuclear cells
  • A link between energy intake (high-fat diet) and metabolic endotoxemia has also been described
  • high-fat diet induces metabolic endotoxemia in healthy individuals.
  • metabolic endotoxemia is associated with systemic and adipose tissue inflammation in pregnant women with obesity
  • A growing amount of evidence indicates that changes in the integrity of the intestinal barrier occur both in the proximal and the distal part of the gut, which can contribute to the entrance of LPS into the systemic circulation
  • intestinal endocannabinoid system
  • The low-grade systemic inflammation that characterizes the obese phenotype is controlled by peptides that are produced in the gut. These peptides are influenced by the presence or absence of the gut microbiota
  • these findings suggest that the gut microbiota modulates the biological systems that regulate the availability of nutrients, energy storage, fat mass development and inflammation in the host, which are all components of the obese phenotype
  •  
    good look of how the the gut health, or lack there of, can influence energy homeostasis and contribute to obesity.  This article points to the presence of LPS playing a role in metabolic endotoxemia.  It does discuss the importance of the microbiota and their possible role in the low-grade systemic inflammation condition that is obesity.
Nathan Goodyear

Inflammatory cause of metabolic syndrome via brain stress and NF-κB - 0 views

  • Mechanistic studies further showed that such metabolic inflammation is related to the induction of various intracellular stresses such as mitochondrial oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and autophagy defect under prolonged nutritional excess
  • intracellular stress-inflammation process for metabolic syndrome has been established in the central nervous system (CNS) and particularly in the hypothalamus
  • the CNS and the comprised hypothalamus are known to govern various metabolic activities of the body including appetite control, energy expenditure, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, and blood pressure homeostasis
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  • Reactive oxygen species (ROS) refer to a class of radical or non-radical oxygen-containing molecules that have high oxidative reactivity with lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids
  • a large measure of intracellular ROS comes from the leakage of mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC)
  • Another major source of intracellular ROS is the intentional generation of superoxides by nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase
  • there are other ROS-producing enzymes such as cyclooxygenases, lipoxygenases, xanthine oxidase, and cytochrome p450 enzymes, which are involved with specific metabolic processes
  • To counteract the toxic effects of molecular oxidation by ROS, cells are equipped with a battery of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutases, catalase, peroxiredoxins, sulfiredoxin, and aldehyde dehydrogenases
  • intracellular oxidative stress has been indicated to contribute to metabolic syndrome and related diseases, including T2D [72; 73], CVDs [74-76], neurodegenerative diseases [69; 77-80], and cancers
  • intracellular oxidative stress is highly associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases [69] and brain aging
  • dietary obesity was found to induce NADPH oxidase-associated oxidative stress in rat brain
  • mitochondrial dysfunction in hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons causes central glucose sensing impairment
  • Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the cellular organelle responsible for protein synthesis, maturation, and trafficking to secretory pathways
  • unfolded protein response (UPR) machinery
  • ER stress has been associated to obesity, insulin resistance, T2D, CVDs, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases
  • brain ER stress underlies neurodegenerative diseases
  • under environmental stress such as nutrient deprivation or hypoxia, autophagy is strongly induced to breakdown macromolecules into reusable amino acids and fatty acids for survival
  • intact autophagy function is required for the hypothalamus to properly control metabolic and energy homeostasis, while hypothalamic autophagy defect leads to the development of metabolic syndrome such as obesity and insulin resistance
  • prolonged oxidative stress or ER stress has been shown to impair autophagy function in disease milieu of cancer or aging
  • TLRs are an important class of membrane-bound pattern recognition receptors in classical innate immune defense
  • Most hypothalamic cell types including neurons and glia cells express TLRs
  • overnutrition constitutes an environmental stimulus that can activate TLR pathways to mediate the development of metabolic syndrome related disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance, T2D, and atherosclerotic CVDs
  • Isoforms TLR1, 2, 4, and 6 may be particularly pertinent to pathogenic signaling induced by lipid overnutrition
  • hypothalamic TLR4 and downstream inflammatory signaling are activated in response to central lipid excess via direct intra-brain lipid administration or HFD-feeding
  • overnutrition-induced metabolic derangements such as central leptin resistance, systemic insulin resistance, and weight gain
  • these evidences based on brain TLR signaling further support the notion that CNS is the primary site for overnutrition to cause the development of metabolic syndrome.
  • circulating cytokines can limitedly travel to the hypothalamus through the leaky blood-brain barrier around the mediobasal hypothalamus to activate hypothalamic cytokine receptors
  • significant evidences have been recently documented demonstrating the role of cytokine receptor pathways in the development of metabolic syndrome components
  • entral administration of TNF-α at low doses faithfully replicated the effects of central metabolic inflammation in enhancing eating, decreasing energy expenditure [158;159], and causing obesity-related hypertension
  • Resistin, an adipocyte-derived proinflammatory cytokine, has been found to promote hepatic insulin resistance through its central actions
  • both TLR pathways and cytokine receptor pathways are involved in central inflammatory mechanism of metabolic syndrome and related diseases.
  • In quiescent state, NF-κB resides in the cytoplasm in an inactive form due to inhibitory binding by IκBα protein
  • IKKβ activation via receptor-mediated pathway, leading to IκBα phosphorylation and degradation and subsequent release of NF-κB activity
  • Research in the past decade has found that activation of IKKβ/NF-κB proinflammatory pathway in metabolic tissues is a prominent feature of various metabolic disorders related to overnutrition
  • it happens in metabolic tissues, it is mainly associated with overnutrition-induced metabolic derangements, and most importantly, it is relatively low-grade and chronic
  • this paradigm of IKKβ/NF-κB-mediated metabolic inflammation has been identified in the CNS – particularly the comprised hypothalamus, which primarily accounts for to the development of overnutrition-induced metabolic syndrome and related disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance, T2D, and obesity-related hypertension
  • evidences have pointed to intracellular oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction as upstream events that mediate hypothalamic NF-κB activation in a receptor-independent manner under overnutrition
  • In the context of metabolic syndrome, oxidative stress-related NF-κB activation in metabolic tissues or vascular systems has been implicated in a broad range of metabolic syndrome-related diseases, such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, cardiac infarct, stroke, cancer, and aging
  • intracellular oxidative stress seems to be a likely pathogenic link that bridges overnutrition with NF-κB activation leading to central metabolic dysregulation
  • overnutrition is an environmental inducer for intracellular oxidative stress regardless of tissues involved
  • excessive nutrients, when transported into cells, directly increase mitochondrial oxidative workload, which causes increased production of ROS by mitochondrial ETC
  • oxidative stress has been shown to activate NF-κB pathway in neurons or glial cells in several types of metabolic syndrome-related neural diseases, such as stroke [185], neurodegenerative diseases [186-188], and brain aging
  • central nutrient excess (e.g., glucose or lipids) has been shown to activate NF-κB in the hypothalamus [34-37] to account for overnutrition-induced central metabolic dysregulations
  • overnutrition can present the cell with a metabolic overload that exceeds the physiological adaptive range of UPR, resulting in the development of ER stress and systemic metabolic disorders
  • chronic ER stress in peripheral metabolic tissues such as adipocytes, liver, muscle, and pancreatic cells is a salient feature of overnutrition-related diseases
  • recent literature supports a model that brain ER stress and NF-κB activation reciprocally promote each other in the development of central metabolic dysregulations
  • when intracellular stresses remain unresolved, prolonged autophagy upregulation progresses into autophagy defect
  • autophagy defect can induce NF-κB-mediated inflammation in association with the development of cancer or inflammatory diseases (e.g., Crohn's disease)
  • The connection between autophagy defect and proinflammatory activation of NF-κB pathway can also be inferred in metabolic syndrome, since both autophagy defect [126-133;200] and NF-κB activation [20-33] are implicated in the development of overnutrition-related metabolic diseases
  • Both TLR pathway and cytokine receptor pathways are closely related to IKKβ/NF-κB signaling in the central pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome
  • Overnutrition, especially in the form of HFD feeding, was shown to activate TLR4 signaling and downstream IKKβ/NF-κB pathway
  • TLR4 activation leads to MyD88-dependent NF-κB activation in early phase and MyD88-indepdnent MAPK/JNK pathway in late phase
  • these studies point to NF-κB as an immediate signaling effector for TLR4 activation in central inflammatory response
  • TLR4 activation has been shown to induce intracellular ER stress to indirectly cause metabolic inflammation in the hypothalamus
  • central TLR4-NF-κB pathway may represent one of the early receptor-mediated events in overnutrition-induced central inflammation.
  • cytokines and their receptors are both upstream activating components and downstream transcriptional targets of NF-κB activation
  • central administration of TNF-α at low dose can mimic the effect of obesity-related inflammatory milieu to activate IKKβ/NF-κB proinflammatory pathways, furthering the development of overeating, energy expenditure decrease, and weight gain
  • the physiological effects of IKKβ/NF-κB activation seem to be cell type-dependent, i.e., IKKβ/NF-κB activation in hypothalamic agouti-related protein (AGRP) neurons primarily leads to the development of energy imbalance and obesity [34]; while in hypothalamic POMC neurons, it primarily results in the development of hypertension and glucose intolerance
  • the hypothalamus, is the central regulator of energy and body weight balance [
  •  
    Great article chronicles the biochemistry of "over nutrition" and inflammation through NF-kappaB activation and its impact on the brain.
Nathan Goodyear

Testosterone and the Cardiovascular System: A Comprehensive Review of the Clinical Lite... - 0 views

  • Low endogenous bioavailable testosterone levels have been shown to be associated with higher rates of all‐cause and cardiovascular‐related mortality.39,41,46–47 Patients suffering from CAD,13–18 CHF,137 T2DM,25–26 and obesity27–28
  • have all been shown to have lower levels of endogenous testosterone compared with those in healthy controls. In addition, the severity of CAD15,17,29–30 and CHF137 correlates with the degree of testosterone deficiency
  • In patients with CHF, testosterone replacement therapy has been shown to significantly improve exercise tolerance while having no effect on LVEF
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  • testosterone therapy causes a shift in the skeletal muscle of CHF patients toward a higher concentration of type I muscle fibers
  • Testosterone replacement therapy has also been shown to improve the homeostatic model of insulin resistance and hemoglobin A1c in diabetics26,68–69 and to lower the BMI in obese patients.
  • Lower levels of endogenous testosterone have been associated with longer duration of the QTc interval
  • testosterone replacement has been shown to shorten the QTc interval
  • negative correlation has been demonstrated between endogenous testosterone levels and IMT of the carotid arteries, abdominal aorta, and thoracic aorta
  • These findings suggest that men with lower levels of endogenous testosterone may be at a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis.
  • Current guidelines from the Endocrine Society make no recommendations on whether patients with heart disease should be screened for hypogonadism and do not recommend supplementing patients with heart disease to improve survival.
  • The Massachusetts Male Aging Study also projects ≈481 000 new cases of hypogonadism annually in US men within the same age group
  • since 1993 prescriptions for testosterone, regardless of the formulation, have increased nearly 500%
  • Testosterone levels are lower in patients with chronic illnesses such as end‐stage renal disease, human immunodeficiency virus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, and several genetic conditions such as Klinefelter syndrome
  • A growing body of evidence suggests that men with lower levels of endogenous testosterone are more prone to develop CAD during their lifetimes
  • There are 2 major potential confounding factors that the older studies generally failed to account for. These factors are the subfraction of testosterone used to perform the analysis and the method used to account for subclinical CAD.
  • The biologically inactive form of testosterone is tightly bound to SHBG and is therefore unable to bind to androgen receptors
  • The biologically inactive fraction of testosterone comprises nearly 68% of the total testosterone in human serum
  • The biologically active subfraction of testosterone, also referred to as bioavailable testosterone, is either loosely bound to albumin or circulates freely in the blood, the latter referred to as free testosterone
  • It is estimated that ≈30% of total serum testosterone is bound to albumin, whereas the remaining 1% to 3% circulates as free testosterone
  • it can be argued that using the biologically active form of testosterone to evaluate the association with CAD will produce the most reliable results
  • English et al14 found statistically significant lower levels of bioavailable testosterone, free testosterone, and free androgen index in patients with catheterization‐proven CAD compared with controls with normal coronary arteries
  • patients with catheterization‐proven CAD had statistically significant lower levels of bioavailable testosterone
  • In conclusion, existing evidence suggests that men with CAD have lower levels of endogenous testosterone,13–18 and more specifically lower levels of bioavailable testosterone
  • low testosterone levels are associated with risk factors for CAD such as T2DM25–26 and obesity
  • In a meta‐analysis of these 7 population‐based studies, Araujo et al41 showed a trend toward increased cardiovascular mortality associated with lower levels of total testosterone, but statistical significance was not achieved (RR, 1.25
  • the authors showed that a decrease of 2.1 standard deviations in levels of total testosterone was associated with a 25% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality
  • the relative risk of all‐cause mortality in men with lower levels of total testosterone was calculated to be 1.35
  • higher risk of cardiovascular mortality is associated with lower levels of bioavailable testosterone
  • Existing evidence seems to suggest that lower levels of endogenous testosterone are associated with higher rates of all‐cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality
  • studies have shown that lower levels of endogenous bioavailable testosterone are associated with higher rates of all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality
  • It may be possible that using bioavailable testosterone to perform mortality analysis will yield more accurate results because it prevents the biologically inactive subfraction of testosterone from playing a potential confounding role in the analysis
  • The earliest published material on this matter dates to the late 1930s
  • the concept that testosterone replacement therapy improves angina has yet to be proven wrong
  • In more recent studies, 3 randomized, placebo‐controlled trials demonstrated that administration of testosterone improves myocardial ischemia in men with CAD
  • The improvement in myocardial ischemia was shown to occur in response to both acute and chronic testosterone therapy and seemed to be independent of whether an intravenous or transdermal formulation of testosterone was used.
  • testosterone had no effect on endothelial nitric oxide activity
  • There is growing evidence from in vivo animal models and in vitro models that testosterone induces coronary vasodilation by modulating the activity of ion channels, such as potassium and calcium channels, on the surface of vascular smooth muscle cells
  • Experimental studies suggest that the most likely mechanism of action for testosterone on vascular smooth muscle cells is via modulation of action of non‐ATP‐sensitive potassium ion channels, calcium‐activated potassium ion channels, voltage‐sensitive potassium ion channels, and finally L‐type calcium ion channels
  • Corona et al confirmed those results by demonstrating that not only total testosterone levels are lower among diabetics, but also the levels of free testosterone and SHBG are lower in diabetic patients
  • Laaksonen et al65 followed 702 Finnish men for 11 years and demonstrated that men in the lowest quartile of total testosterone, free testosterone, and SHBG were more likely to develop T2DM and metabolic syndrome.
  • Vikan et al followed 1454 Swedish men for 11 years and discovered that men in the highest quartile of total testosterone were significantly less likely to develop T2DM
  • authors demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the incidence of T2DM in subjects receiving gonadotropin‐releasing hormone antagonist therapy. In addition, a significant increase in the rate of myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden cardiac death, and development of cardiovascular disease was noted in patients receiving antiandrogen therapy.67
  • Several authors have demonstrated that the administration of testosterone in diabetic men improves the homeostatic model of insulin resistance, hemoglobin A1c, and fasting plasma glucose
  • Existing evidence strongly suggests that the levels of total and free testosterone are lower among diabetic patients compared with those in nondiabetics
  • insulin seems to be acting as a stimulant for the hypothalamus to secret gonadotropin‐releasing hormone, which consequently results in increased testosterone production. It can be argued that decreased stimulation of the hypothalamus in diabetics secondary to insulin deficiency could result in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism
  • BMI has been shown to be inversely associated with testosterone levels
  • This interaction may be a result of the promotion of lipolysis in abdominal adipose tissue by testosterone, which may in turn cause reduced abdominal adiposity. On the other hand, given that adipose tissue has a higher concentration of the enzyme aromatase, it could be that increased adipose tissue results in more testosterone being converted to estrogen, thereby causing hypogonadism. Third, increased abdominal obesity may cause reduced testosterone secretion by negatively affecting the hypothalamus‐pituitary‐testicular axis. Finally, testosterone may be the key factor in activating the enzyme 11‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in adipose tissue, which transforms glucocorticoids into their inactive form.
  • increasing age may alter the association between testosterone and CRP. Another possible explanation for the association between testosterone level and CRP is central obesity and waist circumference
  • Bai et al have provided convincing evidence that testosterone might be able to shorten the QTc interval by augmenting the activity of slowly activating delayed rectifier potassium channels while simultaneously slowing the activity of L‐type calcium channels
  • consistent evidence that supplemental testosterone shortens the QTc interval.
  • Intima‐media thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery is considered a marker for preclinical atherosclerosis
  • Studies have shown that levels of endogenous testosterone are inversely associated with IMT of the carotid artery,126–128,32,129–130 as well as both the thoracic134 and the abdominal aorta
  • 1 study has demonstrated that lower levels of free testosterone are associated with accelerated progression of carotid artery IMT
  • another study has reported that decreased levels of total and bioavailable testosterone are associated with progression of atherosclerosis in the abdominal aorta
  • These findings suggest that normal physiologic testosterone levels may help to protect men from the development of atherosclerosis
  • Czesla et al successfully demonstrated that the muscle specimens that were exposed to metenolone had a significant shift in their composition toward type I muscle fibers
  • Type I muscle fibers, also known as slow‐twitch or oxidative fibers, are associated with enhanced strength and physical capability
  • It has been shown that those with advanced CHF have a higher percentage of type II muscle fibers, based on muscle biopsy
  • Studies have shown that men with CHF suffer from reduced levels of total and free testosterone.137 It has also been shown that reduced testosterone levels in men with CHF portends a poor prognosis and is associated with increased CHF mortality.138 Reduced testosterone has also been shown to correlate negatively with exercise capacity in CHF patients.
  • Testosterone replacement therapy has been shown to significantly improve exercise capacity, without affecting LVEF
  • the results of the 3 meta‐analyses seem to indicate that testosterone replacement therapy does not cause an increase in the rate of adverse cardiovascular events
  • Data from 3 meta‐analyses seem to contradict the commonly held belief that testosterone administration may increase the risk of developing prostate cancer
  • One meta‐analysis reported an increase in all prostate‐related adverse events with testosterone administration.146 However, when each prostate‐related event, including prostate cancer and a rise in PSA, was analyzed separately, no differences were observed between the testosterone group and the placebo group
  • the existing data from the 3 meta‐analyses seem to indicate that testosterone replacement therapy does not increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular events
  • the authors correctly point out the weaknesses of their study which include retrospective study design and lack of randomization, small sample size at extremes of follow‐up, lack of outcome validation by chart review and poor generalizability of the results given that only male veterans with CAD were included in this study
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      The authors here present Total Testosterone as a "confounding" value
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      This would be HSD-II
  • the studies that failed to find an association between testosterone and CRP used an older population group
  • low testosterone may influence the severity of CAD by adversely affecting the mediators of the inflammatory response such as high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, and tumor necrosis factor–α
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    Good review of Testosterone and CHD.  Low T is associated with increased all cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality, CAD, CHF, type II diabetes, obesity, increased IMT,  increased severity of CAD and CHF.  Testosterone replacement in men with low T has been shown to improve exercise tolerance in CHF, improve insulin resistance, improve HgbA1c and lower BMI in the obese.
Nathan Goodyear

Testosterone replacement: Medical alternative to bariatric surgery? : Clinica... - 0 views

  •  
    Testosterone therapy aids weight loss in study of obese men.  The presentation of the potentially biased study (study was funded by the makers of the Testosterone used in the study) proposes Testosterone as a pharmacologic bariatric treatment.  That conclusion is ludicrous!  Testosterone therapy has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, improve glucose uptake, reduces inflammation, improve muscle building, and reduce the parameters of metabolic syndrome--all of which underlies the obesity.  Thus, men with low T and obesity, Testosterone therapy is playing a causal role in the obesity and thus Testosterone therapy is treating the cause.  But to describe it as pharmacologic bariatric therapy is false and misleading. http://ow.ly/CKrje 
Nathan Goodyear

The Association of Obesity with Sex Hormone Binding Globulin is Str... - PubMed - NCBI - 0 views

  •  
    Obesity is significantly associated with low SHBG.  This stands in contrast to aging association with higher SHBG.  Obesity out weighed the association compared to age.  Calculated free Testosterone did not vary between obese and non-obese men.
Nathan Goodyear

Testosterone: a metabolic hormone in health and disease - 0 views

  • E2 and the inflammatory adipocytokines tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interleukin 6 (IL6) inhibit hypothalamic production of GNRH and subsequent release of LH and FSH from the pituitary
  • Leptin, an adipose-derived hormone with a well-known role in regulation of body weight and food intake, also induces LH release under normal conditions via stimulation of hypothalamic GNRH neurons
  • In human obesity, whereby adipocytes are producing elevated amounts of leptin, the hypothalamic–pituitary axis becomes leptin resistant
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  • there is evidence from animal studies that leptin resistance, inflammation and oestrogens inhibit neuronal release of kisspeptin
  • Beyond hypothalamic action, leptin also directly inhibits the stimulatory action of gonadotrophins on the Leydig cells of the testis to decrease testosterone production; therefore, elevated leptin levels in obesity may further diminish androgen status
  • Prostate cancer patients with pre-existing T2DM show a further deterioration of insulin resistance and worsening of diabetic control following ADT
  • ADT for the treatment of prostatic carcinoma in some large epidemiological studies has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of developing MetS and T2DM
  • Non-diabetic men undergoing androgen ablation show increased occurrence of new-onset diabetes and demonstrate elevated insulin levels and worsening glycaemic control
  • increasing insulin resistance assessed by glucose tolerence test and hypoglycemic clamp was shown to be associated with a decrease in Leydig cell testosterone secretion in men
  • The response to testosterone replacement of insulin sensitivity is in part dependent on the androgen receptor (AR)
  • Low levels of testosterone have been associated with an atherogenic lipoprotein profile, characterised by high LDL and triglyceride levels
  • a positive correlation between serum testosterone and HDL has been reported in both healthy and diabetic men
  • up to 70% of the body's insulin sensitivity is accounted for by muscle
  • Testosterone deficiency is associated with a decrease in lean body mass
  • relative muscle mass is inversely associated with insulin resistance and pre-diabetes
  • GLUT4 and IRS1 were up-regulated in cultured adipocytes and skeletal muscle cells following testosterone treatment at low dose and short-time incubations
  • local conversion of testosterone to DHT and activation of AR may be important for glucose uptake
  • inverse correlation between testosterone levels and adverse mitochondrial function
  • orchidectomy of male Wistar rats and associated testosterone deficiency induced increased absorption of glucose from the intestine
  • (Kelley & Mandarino 2000). Frederiksen et al. (2012a) recently demonstrated that testosterone may influence components of metabolic flexibility as 6 months of transdermal testosterone treatment in aging men with low–normal bioavailable testosterone levels increased lipid oxidation and decreased glucose oxidation during the fasting state.
  • Decreased lipid oxidation coupled with diet-induced chronic FA elevation is linked to increased accumulation of myocellular lipid, in particular diacylglycerol and/or ceramide in myocytes
  • In the Chang human adult liver cell line, insulin receptor mRNA expression was significantly increased following exposure to testosterone
  • Testosterone deprivation via castration of male rats led to decreased expression of Glut4 in liver tissue, as well as adipose and muscle
  • oestrogen was found to increase the expression of insulin receptors in insulin-resistant HepG2 human liver cell line
  • FFA decrease hepatic insulin binding and extraction, increase hepatic gluconeogenesis and increase hepatic insulin resistance.
  • Only one, albeit large-scale, population-based cross-sectional study reports an association between low serum testosterone concentrations and hepatic steatosis in men (Völzke et al. 2010)
  • This suggests that testosterone may confer some of its beneficial effects on hepatic lipid metabolism via conversion to E2 and subsequent activation of ERα.
  • hypogonadal men exhibiting a reduced lean body mass and an increased fat mass, abdominal or central obesity
  • visceral adipose tissue was inversely correlated with bioavailable testosterone
  • there was no change in visceral fat mass in aged men with low testosterone levels following 6 months of transdermal TRT, yet subcutaneous fat mass was significantly reduced in both the thigh and the abdominal areas when analysed by MRI (Frederiksen et al. 2012b)
  • ADT of prostate cancer patients increased both visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat in a 12-month prospective observational study (Hamilton et al. 2011)
  • Catecholamines are the major lipolysis regulating hormones in man and regulate adipocyte lipolysis through activation of adenylate cyclase to produce cAMP
  • deficiency of androgen action decreases lipolysis and is primarily responsible for the induction of obesity (Yanase et al. 2008)
  • may be some regional differences in the action of testosterone on subcutaneous and visceral adipose function
  • proinflammatory adipocytokines IL1, IL6 and TNFα are increased in obesity with a downstream effect that stimulates liver production of CRP
  • observational evidence suggests that IL1β, IL6, TNFα and CRP are inversely associated with serum testosterone levels in patients
  • TRT has been reported to significantly reduce these proinflammatory mediators
  • This suggests a role for AR in the metabolic actions of testosterone on fat accumulation and adipose tissue inflammatory response
  • testosterone treatment may have beneficial effects on preventing the pathogenesis of obesity by inhibiting adipogenesis, decreasing triglyceride uptake and storage, increasing lipolysis, influencing lipoprotein content and function and may directly reduce fat mass and increase muscle mass
  • Early interventional studies suggest that TRT in hypogonadal men with T2DM and/or MetS has beneficial effects on lipids, adiposity and parameters of insulin sensitivity and glucose control
  • Evidence that whole-body insulin sensitivity is reduced in testosterone deficiency and increases with testosterone replacement supports a key role of this hormone in glucose and lipid metabolism
  • Impaired insulin sensitivity in these three tissues is characterised by defects in insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity, in particular into skeletal muscle, impaired insulin-mediated inhibition of hepatic glucose production and stimulation of glycogen synthesis in liver, and a reduced ability of insulin to inhibit lipolysis in adipose tissue
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    Great review of the Hypogonadal-obesity-adipocytokine hypothesis.
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