Gender differences in regional body composition and somatotrophic influences of IGF-I and leptin

Abstract

This study evaluated the arm, trunk, and leg for fat mass, lean soft tissue mass, and bone mineral content (BMC) assessed via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in a group of age-matched (∼29 yr) men ( n = 57) and women ( n = 63) and determined their relationship to insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and leptin. After analysis of covariance adjustment to control for differences in body mass between genders, the differences that persisted ( P ≤ 0.05) were for lean soft tissue mass of the arm (men: 7.1 kg vs. women: 6.4 kg) and fat mass of the leg (men: 5.3 kg vs. women: 6.8 kg). Men and women had similar ( P ≥ 0.05) values for fat mass of the arms and trunk and lean soft tissue mass of the legs and trunk. Serum IGF-I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 correlated ( P≤ 0.05) with all measures of BMC ( r values ranged from 0.31 to 0.39) and some measures of lean soft tissue mass for women ( r = 0.30) but not men. Leptin correlated ( P≤ 0.05) similarly for measures of fat mass for both genders ( r values ranging from 0.74 to 0.85) and for lean soft tissue mass of the trunk ( r = 0.40) and total body ( r = 0.32) for men and for the arms in women ( r = 0.56). These data demonstrate that 1) the main phenotypic gender differences in body composition are that men have more of their muscle mass in their arms and women have more of their fat mass in their legs and 2) gender differences exist in the relationship between somatotrophic hormones and lean soft tissue mass.