This study aims to investigate the impact of menopause-related sleep fragmentation on metabolic biomarkers of body fat gain. The investigators hypothesize that experimental sleep fragmentation will result in an adverse leptin response as a metabolic biomarker for body fat gain.
While obesity is highly prevalent in midlife and older women, with rates increasing markedly after age 40 and body fat increasing in half of women during and after the menopause transition, factors causing these changes are not well understood. Reduced total sleep time has been shown to adversely impact biomarkers of obesity, but the effect of the highly prevalent menopause-related sleep fragmentation secondary to hot flashes on metabolism and eating behaviors in humans is not known. We will use experimental paradigms to isolate the impact of menopause-related sleep disruption, as well as that of hot flashes and estrogen withdrawal, metabolic biomarkers of body fat gain and on eating behaviors, results of which will inform strategies to prevent body fat gain and improve cardio-metabolic health outcomes in women.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
41
one injection of open-label intramuscular dose of leuprolide (3.75-mg depot), a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist that rapidly suppresses estradiol and temporarily achieves ovarian suppression.
Fragmented sleep will be experimentally induced.
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Normalized Serum Leptin Levels
12-hr overnight fasted AM (morning) blood samples were assayed for leptin levels on study days 2-6 under both estrogenized and estradiol-withdrawal conditions \[total: 10 samples\]. For each individual, leptin values were normalized relative to the mean baseline leptin value. Baseline was defined as the unfragmented estrogenized condition (avg. of study days 2-3 in the estrogenized condition).
Time frame: pre/post sleep fragmentation (3 days); pre/post estradiol withdrawal (~5 weeks)
Normalized Satiety Scores
12-hr overnight fasted AM satiety scores were collected on study days 2-6 under both estrogenized and estradiol-withdrawal conditions \[total: 10 scores\]. For each individual, satiety scores were normalized relative to the mean baseline satiety score. Baseline was defined as the unfragmented estrogenized condition (avg. of study days 2-3 in the estrogenized condition).
Time frame: pre/post sleep fragmentation (3 days); pre/post estradiol withdrawal (~5 weeks)
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