Hormones play an extremely important role in practically every aspect of normal human health. When the complex physiological regulatory interactions that underlie endocrine system function operate less than optimally, either in association with pathology or with the apparently normal decline with aging, a concomitant decline in individual well-being and health status is often the result. Numerous endocrine axes are being studied by applying a variety of quantitative strategies to analyze how and to what extent endocrine communication pathways are altered in disease and with aging.

The growth hormone axis, the male luteinizing hormone-testosterone axis, the adrenocorticotrophic hormone-cortisol axis, and the complex network of endocrine regulation underlying the female reproductive axis are all systems being considered by these approaches.

Goals are to identify and to increase our understanding of phenomenological effects that can be detected to use for purposes of both, first, diagnostically discriminating normal healthy conditions from pathological states or those associated with age-related functional decline and, subsequently, inferring about underlying changes in functional mechanisms that may be responsible for the observed alterations.

Faculty associated with this research include:

William S. Evans

Michael L. Johnson

Leon S. Farhi

Boris P. Kovatchev

Michael O. Thorner