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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #75892
Title: BODY COMPOSITION OF HIV/AIDS MALES: EFFECTS OF TREATMENT WITH INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR (IGF-I) AND GROWTH HORMONE (GH)

Author
item Ellis, Kenneth
item LEE, PDK - 6250-00-00
item BUKAR, JG
item GESUNDHEIT, N.

Submitted to: Applied Radiation And Isotopes
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/1/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), usually experience weight loss, which contributes to their illness and ultimate death. Analyses of the body composition of people with HIV and AIDS are limited. We wanted to find out whether we could avoid this weight loss problem and help HIV patients by giving them a low dose of growth hormone (GH) as well as a dose of insulin like growth factor (IGF-I), which are two hormone substances thought to be beneficial. We studied 66 males age 18 to 50 years old who tested positive for HIV and had chronic weight loss. We tested them over a 12-week period. Body weight was increased in the G/IGF group at 3 and 6 weeks, but it didn't last in many of the subjects by the end of the 12-week period. We conclude that a moderate IGF-I dose combined with a low GH dose is not enough to produce the desired response as measured by total body potassium or nitrogen, which measures body cell mass and body protein. However, in future studies, perhaps a different dose of GH and/or IGF-I would be more effective.

Technical Abstract: Involuntary weight loss is a common finding reported in clinical studies of HIV/AIDS patients. This weight loss contributes to morbidity and mortality in these patients. Detailed analyses of body composition of the HIV/AIDS population are limited. There is the possibility of GH resistance, hence the present study was undertaken to determine whether a pharmacologic dose of IGF-I, administered with a low dose of GH, could produce an anabolic response in HIV/AIDS patients. The minimum effective GH dose needed, however, is not known. The GH dose selected was about an order of magnitude lower than that usually used for pharmacologic treatment of GH deficiency.