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Body-fat distribution and responsiveness of the pituitary-adrenal axis to corticotropin-releasing-hormone stimulation in sedentary and exercising women

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Abstract

Excess upper-body (android) fat is considered an health hazard. Exercise training is known to have the potential to modify body composition and to induce a preferential loss of abdominal fat. We studied and compared the composition of whole body and major body regions using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in 21 exercising (3–4 hours of intense physical activity/day) and 21 sedentary eumen-orrhoic women of similar ages, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and age of menar-che. In a small number of women in each group (6 out of 21), the ACTH and cortisol response to CRH test and the 24-h urinary cortisol excretion was evaluated. Exercising women had 10% higher total and leg lean mass (p<0.05), and 38% lower total fat mass (p<0.01) than sedentary women. Furthermore, the proportion of android fat was 22% lower in exercising than sedentary women (p<0.01), while the proportion of lower-body (gynoid fat) was unchanged. BMI and WHR were not different between the two groups, while the android/gynoid fat ratios were 16% lower in exercising than in sedentary women (p<0.01). In the exercising women, ACTH and cortisol plasma levels, as well as the 24-h urinary cortisol excretion, were significantly (p<0.01) higher than in the sedentary women studied. In these subjects, a direct relationship between the peak Δ percentage increases of ACTH and cortisol after the CRH test and the proportion of android fat was found (r=0.60, p<0.05 and r=0.69, p<0.02, respectively). These results demonstrate that in women who practise intense exercise there are significant differences in body fat distribution in comparison to sedentary women, with a marked less amount of android fat, and suggest that this difference may be related to a reduced response of the pituitary-adrenal axis to CRH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Viale del Policlinico, 00161, Rome, Italy

    A. Fabbri M.D., PhD (Cattedra di Andrologia), D. Giannini (Cattedra di Andrologia), A. Aversa (Cattedra di Andrologia), M. U. De Martino (Cattedra di Andrologia), E. Fabbrini (Cattedra di Andrologia) & A. Isidori (Cattedra di Andrologia)

  2. Dipartimento Medicina Interna, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Italy

    C. Moretti (Cattedra di Endocrinologia) & G. Frajese (Cattedra di Endocrinologia)

  3. Campus Biomedico, 00161, Roma, Italy

    F. Franceschi (Cattedra di Ortopedia)

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  1. A. Fabbri M.D., PhD
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  2. D. Giannini
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Fabbri, A., Giannini, D., Aversa, A. et al. Body-fat distribution and responsiveness of the pituitary-adrenal axis to corticotropin-releasing-hormone stimulation in sedentary and exercising women. J Endocrinol Invest 22, 377–385 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03343576

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