Monday 2 April 2012

Estrogen metabolism regulation

Given I am male and not a practicing doctor I generally know alot more about the androgens than the female hormones but I came across this study which made for a good read, I have bullet-pointed some of the more interesting quotes from the paper below.

The diversity of sex steroid action: regulation of metabolism by estrogen signaling.

  • Estrogen is a major effector for the regulation of energy balance, body weight, fat distribution, and appetite (in mice )
  • Ovariectomized mice display an increase in food consumption, decreased running wheel activities, and increased fat mass, which can be reversed with estrogen replacement
  • Energy homeostasis and feeding behavior in the hypothalamus also follows the menstrual cycle, and food intake in women varies across the cycle with lowest daily food intake during the peri-ovulatory period when estrogen levels are maximum
  • After puberty, estrogen modulates leptin synthesis and secretion
  • In addition, raised levels of estrogens have been associated with increased leptin sensitivity in the brain
  • Premenopausal women are more insulin sensitive with associated improved glucose tolerance, are more resistant to develop IR compared with men, and display increased expression of GLUT4
  • Importantly, men with aromatase deficiency, who cannot synthesize estrogen hormones, display impairment in glucose metabolism and IR
  • female mice have increased lipogenic capacities in adipocytes compared with male mice
  • When circulating levels of estrogen are raised above the physiological range, adipose tissue metabolism is altered resulting in reduced lipogenic rates and fat depot size.
  • This is further supported by epidemiological observations that serum triglyceride levels increase in postmenopausal women and that the level of LPL activity is reduced by estrogen treatment
  • 17β-estradiol treatment suppressed the expression of lipogenic genes, i.e. fatty acid synthase (Fasn), stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase 1 (Scd1), and glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (Gpam), in livers of leptin-deficient Ob/Ob mice
  • 17β-estradiol suppresses lipogenesis and TG accumulation in adipose tissue and liver in high-fat diet (HFD) fed and leptin-deficient female mice

1 comment:

  1. Sounds about right.

    But remember: estrogen kills old women!

    ReplyDelete