Endogenous Estrogen Regulates Somatostatin-Induced Rebound GH Secretion in Postmenopausal Women

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Somatostatin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Systemic concentrations of T, estradiol (E2), GH, IGF-1, and IGF binding protein-3 decline in healthy aging individuals.

Conversely, T and E2 stimulate GH and IGF-1 production in hypogonadal patients.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

This was a randomized, double-blind, controlled study in 60 healthy postmenopausal women treated with the following: 1) double placebo; 2) anastrozole, a potent inhibitor of aromatase-enzyme activity, which mediates E2 synthesis from T; and/or 3) fulvestrant, a selective estrogen receptor-α antagonist.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Somatostatin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Somatostatin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Somatostatin group a baseline to be compared against.

GH pulse generation was quantified by frequent GH sampling before and after short-term iv somatostatin infusion, thought to induce hypothalamic GHRH-mediated rebound-like GH secretion.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anastrozole, Aromatase Inhibitors, Estradiol, Estrogen Receptor Antagonists, Estrogen Receptor alpha, Fulvestrant and Human Growth Hormone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Somatostatin.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.