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Oxytocin in survivors of childhood-onset craniopharyngioma

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Abstract

Quality of survival of childhood-onset craniopharyngioma patients is frequently impaired by hypothalamic involvement or surgical lesions sequelae such as obesity and neuropsychological deficits. Oxytocin, a peptide hormone produced in the hypothalamus and secreted by posterior pituitary gland, plays a major role in regulation of behavior and body composition. In a cross-sectional study, oxytocin saliva concentrations were analyzed in 34 long-term craniopharyngioma survivors with and without hypothalamic involvement or treatment-related damage, recruited in the German Childhood Craniopharyngioma Registry, and in 73 healthy controls, attending the Craniopharyngioma Support Group Meeting 2014. Oxytocin was measured in saliva of craniopharyngioma patients and controls before and after standardized breakfast and associations with gender, body mass index, hypothalamic involvement, diabetes insipidus, and irradiation were analyzed. Patients with preoperative hypothalamic involvement showed similar oxytocin levels compared to patients without hypothalamic involvement and controls. However, patients with surgical hypothalamic lesions grade 1 (anterior hypothalamic area) presented with lower levels (p = 0.017) of oxytocin under fasting condition compared to patients with surgical lesion of posterior hypothalamic areas (grade 2) and patients without hypothalamic lesions (grade 0). Craniopharyngioma patients’ changes in oxytocin levels before and after breakfast correlated (p = 0.02) with their body mass index. Craniopharyngioma patients continue to secrete oxytocin, especially when anterior hypothalamic areas are not involved or damaged, but oxytocin shows less variation due to nutrition. Oxytocin supplementation should be explored as a therapeutic option in craniopharyngioma patients with hypothalamic obesity and/or behavioral pathologies due to lesions of specific anterior hypothalamic areas. Clinical trial number: KRANIOPHARYNGEOM 2000/2007(NCT00258453; NCT01272622).

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Acknowledgements

We thank all patients who participated in this study. We are grateful for the help of Margarita Neff-Heinrich, Göttingen, Germany, in proofreading and editing the manuscript. H. L. Müller is supported by the German Childhood Cancer Foundation, Bonn, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Klinikum Oldenburg AöR, Medical Campus University Oldenburg, 26133 , Oldenburg, Germany

    Anna M. M. Daubenbüchel, Anika Hoffmann, Kristin Lohle, Julia Reichel & Hermann L. Müller

  2. University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, 9712 , Groningen, The Netherlands

    Anna M. M. Daubenbüchel

  3. Institute of Biostatistics and Clinical Research, University of Münster, 48149 , Münster, Germany

    Maria Eveslage

  4. Biological Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University, 26129 , Oldenburg, Germany

    Jale Özyurt & Christiane M. Thiel

  5. Research Center Neurosensory Science and Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”, Carl von Ossietzky University, 26129 , Oldenburg, Germany

    Christiane M. Thiel

  6. GIGA-I3 Center of Immunoendocrinology, University of Liege Liege-Sart Tilman, 4000 , Liege, Belgium

    Henri Martens & Vincent Geenen

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  1. Anna M. M. Daubenbüchel
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Daubenbüchel, A.M.M., Hoffmann, A., Eveslage, M. et al. Oxytocin in survivors of childhood-onset craniopharyngioma. Endocrine 54, 524–531 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-016-1084-5

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