Neuroendocrine adaptations to starvation
Tânia Amorim1, Anamil Khiyami2, Tariq Latif3
1Neuroendocrinology Unit, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Center for Human Integrative Physiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Abstract:
Famine and starvation have punctuated the evolutionary past of the human species. As such, we have developed hormonal responses to undernutrition that minimize energy expenditure on processes that are not critical for the survival of the individual, such as reproduction. In this review, we discuss neuroendocrine adaptations to starvation including hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, growth hormone resistance, hypercortisolemia, and the downregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. We review the time-course of these adaptations by describing studies involving the short-term fasting of healthy individuals as well as studies describing the hormonal changes in states of chronic undernutrition, using individuals with anorexia nervosa as a model of chronic starvation. Lastly, we review representative clinical effects of chronic undernutrition.
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