Gender, age, body mass index, and IGF-I individually and jointly determine distinct GH dynamics: analyses in one hundred healthy adults.

Background: GH secretion is quantifiable as mean, peak, and nadir GH concentrations; degree of irregularity (approximate entropy); and spikiness (brief staccato-like fluctuations).

Hypothesis: Distinct GH dynamics reflect relatively distinct (combinations of) subject variables, such as gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and IGF-I concentrations.

Location: The study took place at a clinical translational research unit.

Subjects: Subjects included 100 healthy adults ages 20-77 yr (59 women and 41 men), BMI 18-42 kg/m(2), and IGF-I 9.2-38 nmol/liter.

Measures: Immunofluorometric GH assay was done on 10-min samples collected for 24 h.

Results: Stepwise forward-selection multivariate regression analysis revealed that mean GH concentrations were simultaneously determined (overall r = 0.36; P < 0.001) by gender (higher in women, P < 0.001), BMI (negatively, P < 0.001), and IGF-I (positively, P < 0.001). Peak GH levels were influenced (r = 0.28) by both BMI (P < 0.001) and IGF-I (P = 0.001). Nadir GH values were jointly affected by gender (higher in women, P = 0.005) and BMI (negatively, P = 0.001). GH approximate entropy was triply defined (r = 0.29) by gender (greater irregularity in women, P < 0.001), age (P = 0.022), and BMI (P = 0.008) and dually (r = 0.25) by gender (P = 0.0001) and BMI (P = 0.017) if sex steroids were included. GH spikiness was determined (r = 0.29) by gender (higher in women, P = 0.0016) and BMI (positively, P = 0.0002).

Conclusion: In healthy adults, combinations of gender, age, BMI, and IGF-I specify distinct GH dynamics, thus requiring balanced representation of these variables in comparative GH studies.