TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in pituitary function with ageing and implications for patient care
AU - Veldhuis, Johannes D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author thanks J. Smith of the Endocrine Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, for support of manuscript preparation. Supported in part via AG019695, DK073148, AG029362, AG031763 and DK050456 (Metabolic Studies Core of the Minnesota Obesity Center) from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on ageing or the National Institutes of Health. Certain cited studies were supported by the National Center for Research Resources and by Grant Number UL1 TR000135 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCTS).
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - The pituitary gland has a role in puberty, reproduction, stress-adaptive responses, sodium and water balance, uterine contractions, lactation, thyroid function, growth, body composition and skin pigmentation. Ageing is marked by initially subtle erosion of physiological signalling mechanisms, resulting in lower incremental secretory-burst amplitude, more disorderly patterns of pituitary hormone release and blunted 24 h rhythmic secretion. Almost all pituitary hormones are altered by ageing in humans, often in a manner dependent on sex, body composition, stress, comorbidity, intercurrent illness, medication use, physical frailty, caloric intake, immune status, level of exercise, and neurocognitive decline. The aim of this article is to critically discuss the mechanisms mediating clinical facets of changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis during ageing, and the extent to which confounding factors operate to obscure ageing-related effects.
AB - The pituitary gland has a role in puberty, reproduction, stress-adaptive responses, sodium and water balance, uterine contractions, lactation, thyroid function, growth, body composition and skin pigmentation. Ageing is marked by initially subtle erosion of physiological signalling mechanisms, resulting in lower incremental secretory-burst amplitude, more disorderly patterns of pituitary hormone release and blunted 24 h rhythmic secretion. Almost all pituitary hormones are altered by ageing in humans, often in a manner dependent on sex, body composition, stress, comorbidity, intercurrent illness, medication use, physical frailty, caloric intake, immune status, level of exercise, and neurocognitive decline. The aim of this article is to critically discuss the mechanisms mediating clinical facets of changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis during ageing, and the extent to which confounding factors operate to obscure ageing-related effects.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875424408&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84875424408&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nrendo.2013.38
DO - 10.1038/nrendo.2013.38
M3 - Review article
C2 - 23438832
AN - SCOPUS:84875424408
SN - 1759-5029
VL - 9
SP - 205
EP - 215
JO - Nature Reviews Endocrinology
JF - Nature Reviews Endocrinology
IS - 4
ER -