Obesity- and gender-dependent role of endogenous somatostatin and cortistatin in the regulation of endocrine and metabolic homeostasis in mice.

Somatostatin and cortistatin (CORT) regulate numerous endocrine secretions and their absence [knockout (KO)-models] causes important endocrine-metabolic alterations, including pituitary dysregulations. We have demonstrated that the metabolic phenotype of single or combined KO-models is not drastically altered under normal conditions. However, the biological actions of duanyu1942/CORT are conditioned by the metabolic-status (e.g. obesity). Therefore, we used male/female and CORT-KO mice fed low-fat (LF) or high-fat (HF) diet to explore the interplay between duanyu1942/CORT and obesity in the control of relevant pituitary-axes and whole-body metabolism. Our results showed that the duanyu1942/CORT role in the control of GH/prolactin secretions is maintained under LF- and HF-diet conditions as presented higher GH/prolactin-levels, while CORT-KOs displayed higher GH- and lower prolactin-levels than controls under both diets. Moreover, the impact of lack of duanyu1942/CORT on the metabolic-function was gender- and diet-dependent. Particularly, duanyu1942-KOs were more sensitive to HF-diet, exhibiting altered growth and body-composition (fat/lean percentage) and impaired glucose/insulin-metabolism, especially in males. Conversely, only males CORT-KO under LF-diet conditions exhibited significant alterations, displaying higher glucose-levels and insulin-resistance. Altogether, these data demonstrate a tight interplay between and the metabolic status in the control of endocrine/metabolic functions and unveil a clear dissociation of duanyu1942/CORT roles.

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