Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Feb 13:14:1075776.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1075776. eCollection 2023.

Ectopic lipid metabolism in anterior pituitary dysfunction

Clemens Baumgartner  1 , Martin Krššák  1 , Greisa Vila  1 , Michael Krebs  1 , Peter Wolf  1
Affiliations
Review

Ectopic lipid metabolism in anterior pituitary dysfunction

Clemens Baumgartner et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Over the past decades, adapted lifestyle and dietary habits in industrialized countries have led to a progress of obesity and associated metabolic disorders. Concomitant insulin resistance and derangements in lipid metabolism foster the deposition of excess lipids in organs and tissues with limited capacity of physiologic lipid storage. In organs pivotal for systemic metabolic homeostasis, this ectopic lipid content disturbs metabolic action, thereby promotes the progression of metabolic disease, and inherits a risk for cardiometabolic complications. Pituitary hormone syndromes are commonly associated with metabolic diseases. However, the impact on subcutaneous, visceral, and ectopic fat stores between disorders and their underlying hormonal axes is rather different, and the underlying pathophysiological pathways remain largely unknown. Pituitary disorders might influence ectopic lipid deposition indirectly by modulating lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, but also directly by organ specific hormonal effects on energy metabolism. In this review, we aim to I) provide information about the impact of pituitary disorders on ectopic fat stores, II) and to present up-to-date knowledge on potential pathophysiological mechanisms of hormone action in ectopic lipid metabolism.

Keywords: HPA - hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal; NAFLD; cardiac steatosis; ectopic fat; growth hormone; hypogonadism; thyroid hormone.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of pituitary hormone axes on white adipose tissue and ectopic lipid content. Depicted pituitary axes include the thyroid-axis (light pink), growth hormone-axis (green), hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (blue), and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (yellow). Modulations of ectopic lipid content are summarized in tables for each effector (GH, TH, Cortisol, Androgens, and Estrogens) in skeletal muscle, liver, and heart. Reference numbers are attached as superscript. Background colors correspond to the depicted hormonal axes. Hypothalamic hormones, negative feedback loops, and, due to scarcity of data, prolactin are not shown. ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone; FSH, follicle-stimulating hormone; GH, growth hormone; HCL, hepatic lipid content; LH, luteinizing hormone; SAT, subcutaneous adipose tissue; TG, triglycerides; TH, thyroid hormones; TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone; t4, thyroxine, t3, triiodothyronine; VAT, visceral adipose tissue; VLDL, very-low density lipoprotein.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Neeland IJ, Ross R, Després JP, Matsuzawa Y, Yamashita S, Shai I. Visceral and ectopic fat, atherosclerosis, and cardiometabolic disease: A position statement. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol (2019) 7(9):715–25. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(19)30084-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cuthbertson DJ, Steele T, Wilding JP, Halford JC, Harrold JA, Hamer M. What have human experimental overfeeding studies taught us about adipose tissue expansion and susceptibility to obesity and metabolic complications? Int J Obes (Lond) (2017) 41(6):853–65. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2017.4 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wolf P, Winhofer Y, Krššák M, Krebs M. Heart, lipids and hormones. Endocrine Connections (2017) 6(4):R59–69. doi: 10.1530/EC-17-0031 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fujioka S, Matsuzawa Y, Tokunaga K, Tarui S. Contribution of intra-abdominal fat accumulation to the impairment of glucose and lipid metabolism in human obesity. Metabolism (1987) 36(1):54–9. doi: 10.1016/0026-0495(87)90063-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Després JP. Body fat distribution and risk of cardiovascular disease: An update. Circulation (2012) 126(10):1301–13. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.067264 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

This work was funded by a grant (KLI 1015-B) from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) attributed to PW.
-