ESPE Abstracts

Background: Carotenoids are potent antioxidants that affect many different metabolic processes. In plasma, carotenoids are transported with lipoproteins. Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is known to induce oxidative stress and deterioration in the lipid profile, which can change the level and composition of carotenoids. Particularly interesting to measure these parameters in GHD children.

Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study is to examine the amount and percentage of main plasma carotenoids in prepubertal treatment-naive GHD children.

Method: The 13 prepubertal treatment-naive children (two girls, 11 boys; aged 3.5–12.0 years; median 8.0 years) with GHD and seven prepubertal health children (seven boys; aged 6–11 years; median 9.3 years) were included in the study. The levels of total carotenoids, lutein (with zeaxanthin), various forms of lycopene, cryptoxanthin, and α- and β-carotene were measured using HPLC. Total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) were measured. Activity of antioxidant system was also examined by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), ceruloplasmin and total antioxidant capacity (TAC).

Results: The level of TBARS, TC and LDL-C in GHD children was higher than in healthy children (median 5.6 vs 3.8 μM/l, 4.00 vs 4.37 and 2.40 vs 2.70 mM/l, respectively), whereas total carotenoid level did not significantly differ. However, content of lutein and cryptoxanthin were significantly lower in GHD children than in control group (2.4 vs 13.5 and 5.0 vs 13.7%, respectively), in contrast to lycopenes and α- and β-carotene (5.6 vs 8.0 and 22.2 vs 28.9%, respectively). At the same time the percentage of undefined substances in GHD children increases (52.9 vs 20.9%).

Conclusion: We observed a mild oxidative stress and the altered lipid profile in GHD children. Very likely carotenoids protect the lipoproteins from oxidation, which change their composition.