ACTH SENSITIVITY/RESPONSIVITY IN AGING

人类的衰老与肾上腺的显著不足有关。 雄激素的生产。肾上腺雄激素水平的降低 与许多衰老后遗症的迹象增加相关，例如 心血管疾病、癌症、胰岛素抵抗、高脂血症和 免疫能力受损。与年龄相关的减数机制 在肾上腺，雄激素的产生是未知的。目前也不清楚是否会老化 对男性和女性肾上腺功能的影响是相似的，还是 年轻人和老年人的肾上腺功能存在种族差异。 人类。我们建议继续研究老化对老年人的影响 肾上腺类固醇生物合成途径，特别是在老年非洲人 美国人对肾上腺皮质类固醇的认识还很少。 或者雄激素的产生。这些研究将通过以下方式进行 大鼠肾上腺对分级剂量ACTH反应的动态功能测试 与年轻人相比，老年男性和女性。这些研究的结果 都有望提供肾上腺功能的特征 并建议这种功能的机制是 在正常衰老的成年人中会发生改变。激素替代疗法的影响 在绝经后妇女对肾上腺类固醇激素的反应也会 下定决心。

Aging in humans is associated with a striking deficiency in adrenal production of androgens. Reduced levels of adrenal androgens have been correlated with increased indicence of many sequelae of aging such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, and impaired immune competence. The mechanisms for age-associated reductions in adrenal androgen production are unknown. It also is not clear if aging effects adrenal function in men and women in similar manners or whether there are race related differences in adrenal function in young or elderly humans. We propose to continue our studies on the effect of aging on the adrenal steroid biosynthetic pathway, particularly in aging African Americans, in whoem little is established regarding adrenal corticosteroid or androgen production. These studies will be condectted by means of dynamic functional testing of adrenal responses to graded doses of ACTH in aged men and women compared to young adults. The results of these studies are expected to provide both a characterization of adrenal function in aged adults and also to suggest the mechanisms whereby such function is altered in normal aging adults. The impact of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women on adrenal steroidogenic responses also will be determined.