Abstract :
Frailty status is associated with altered glucose-insulin dynamics. here, we sought to
investigate whether alteration in the dynamics of other circulating energy metabolism hormones after oral
glucose is associated with frailty status. Design: substudy of older women in a prospective cohort. Setting:
Baltimore, Maryland. Participants: seventy-three community-dwelling women aged 84-95 years without a
diagnosis of diabetes who were enrolled in the Women’s health and aging study ii. Measurements: We
examined stimulus-response dynamics of free fatty acids (FFa), gut- (ghrelin,GlP-1) and adipocyte-derived
hormones (leptin, adiponectin, resistin), growth hormone (Gh), insulin-like growth factor 1 (iGF-1), and
interleukin-6 (il-6) at 0, 30, 60, 120, and 180-minutes after a 75-g glucose challenge according to frailty status
(non-frail, pre-frail, or frail). Results: On average, frail women had higher fasting levels of glucose-raising
hormones (FFa, resistin, Gh, and il-6) and lower fasting levels of glucose-lowering hormones (ghrelin,
adiponectin, GlP-1 and iGF-1) versus non-frail women but these results were not statistically significant. Frail
women also had higher fasting levels of leptin with relative adiposity compared to their counterparts, suggestive
of leptin-resistance. integrated area under the curve (aUC) values for each hormone followed similar trends by
frailty status. after age and BMi adjustment, frail versus non-frail women were more likely to be in the lowest
tertile of fasting ghrelin levels and 120-min ghrelin levels (both p<0.05) in logistic regression analyses. no large
differences were found for other hormones in adjusted models. Conclusions: Our findings suggest dysregulation
of the orexigenic hormone ghrelin in the frailty syndrome. Further studies are needed to explore the role of
ghrelin dysregulation in the clinical manifestation of frailty.
Keywords :
Frailty , Energy , metabolism , insulin , glucose
