Growth hormone improves NAFLD in obese patients without disturbing glycemic control

In persons with overweight/obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), growth hormone (GH) treatment improves hepatic steatosis without affecting glycemic measurements, says an article published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Overweight and obesity are linked to a lack of relative growth hormone, which has been linked to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. NAFLD is a degenerative condition for which there are no viable therapies. As a result, Laura Dichtel and colleagues undertook this trial with the premise that GH treatment would diminish hepatic steatosis in those who were overweight/obese and had NAFLD.

In this 6-month randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, trial of low-dose the growth hormone administration, 53 adults aged 18 to 65 years with BMI 25 kg/m2 and NAFLD without diabetes were randomized to daily subcutaneous GH or placebo, with IGF-1 targeting the upper normal quartile. The primary outcome was intrahepatic lipid content (IHL) as measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) before and after therapy.

The key findings of this study were:

At 6 months, 41 subjects (20 GH and 21 placebo) were randomly allocated to a therapy group (27 GH; 26 placebo).

The reduction in absolute% IHL by 1H-MRS was considerably larger in the GH group vs the placebo group, resulting in an 8.9% net mean treatment effect.

Except for non-clinically noteworthy lower extremity edema, which was more common in the GH than placebo group (21% vs 0%, P = .02), other side events were comparable between groups.

There were no trial dropouts owing to deteriorating glycemic control, and there were no significant changes in glycemic control or resistance to insulin between the GH and placebo groups.

Reference:

Dichtel, L. E., Corey, K. E., Haines, M. S., Chicote, M. L., Lee, H., Kimball, A., Colling, C., Simon, T. G., Long, M. T., Husseini, J., Bredella, M. A., & Miller, K. K. (2023). Growth Hormone Administration Improves Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Overweight/Obesity: A Randomized Trial. In The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The Endocrine Society. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad375