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A recent study suggests that people with a rare condition called growth hormone receptor deficiency (GHRD), also known as Laron syndrome, may have better heart health.
GHRD, which is defined by the body’s inability to use its own growth hormone and thereby stunted growth, is associated with a 40 percent increase in longevity in mice and a reduced risk of several age-related disorders. However, the risk of cardiovascular disease in individuals with GHRD remains unknown, leading to suspicion that this rodent longevity mutation could potentially increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in humans.
The study, featured in Med, is the latest product of a nearly 20-year international collaboration between Walter Longo, professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, and endocrinologist Jaime Guevara-Aguirre of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. ,
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Over the past two decades, Longo, Guevara-Aguirre and their colleagues have investigated the health and aging of people with the gene mutation that causes GHRD. This rare mutation – found in only 400 to 500 people worldwide – was identified in a group of Ecuadorians whose ancestors fled Spain during the Inquisition more than three centuries ago. The mutation leaves them with ineffective growth hormone receptors and results in a form of dwarfism.
The team’s previous research has indicated that while GHRD/Laron syndrome reduces growth, it also reduces the risk of several age-related diseases. Although Ecuadorians with GHRD have higher rates of obesity, they have a much lower risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes. His brain appears to be healthy and he performs better on tests of cognition and memory.
For the current study, the research team examined cardiovascular function, damage, and risk factors in GHRD subjects and their relatives. The researchers conducted two rounds of measurements in Los Angeles and Ecuador, involving a total of 51 individuals, 24 of whom were diagnosed with GHRD and 27 relatives without GHRD served as controls.
GHRD subjects displayed lower blood sugar, insulin resistance and blood pressure compared to the control group.
Their heart dimensions were also smaller and pulse wave velocity was similar – a measure of stiffness in the arteries – but carotid artery thickness was less than the control subjects.
Despite elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad cholesterol,” levels, GHRD subjects showed a trend for fewer carotid artery atherosclerotic plaques than controls (7 percent vs. 36 percent).
“These findings suggest that individuals with GHRD have normal or better levels of heart disease risk factors than their relatives,” said Longo, senior author of the new study. “Although the population tested is small, this human data along with studies in mice and other organisms provide valuable insight into the health effects of growth hormone receptor deficiency and suggest that medications or dietary interventions that produce similar effects may , may reduce the incidence of disease and possibly increase longevity.”
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