Hypopituitarism and HIV-infection: a new comorbidity in the HAART era?

J Endocrinol Invest. 2008 Sep;31(9 Suppl):33-8.

Abstract

Several comorbidities are associated with the HIV infection and may involve also the endocrine-metabolic system. Consistently, the recent development of the therapeutic regimen highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) ruled out a significant improvement both in the prognosis and life expectancy of HIV-infected patients, but disclosed also new serious drug-related toxicity. Of these, the lipodystrophy syndrome is the most frequent, occurring in up to 83% of HIV-infected patients under HAART. The HIV-related lipodystrophy is associated with alterations in GH dynamics, affecting both basal and stimulated GH secretion. This GHIGF- I secretive pattern resembles that of severe GH deficiency in adulthood due to pituitary diseases, but without leading to IGF-I serum levels below the normal range. The impairment of pituitary GH secretion has been ascribed to the hormonal and metabolic inhibitory effect due to adipose tissue redistribution in HIV-infected males, since in these patients pituitary GH secretion appeared to be inversely related to visceral adipose tissue accumulation and waist to-hip-ratio. However, whether these patients suffer from a true GH deficiency due to an intrinsic pituitary failure or display only a functional reduction of GH secretion due to visceral adiposity remains still a matter of debate, especially in HIV-infected females.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active* / adverse effects
  • Body Composition / drug effects
  • Comorbidity
  • Endocrine System Diseases / drug therapy
  • Endocrine System Diseases / etiology
  • HIV Infections / complications
  • HIV Infections / drug therapy*
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology*
  • HIV-1
  • HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome / complications
  • HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome / drug therapy
  • HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome / epidemiology
  • Human Growth Hormone / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Hypopituitarism / drug therapy
  • Hypopituitarism / epidemiology*
  • Models, Biological

Substances

  • Human Growth Hormone