Transient early life growth hormone exposure permanently alters brain, muscle, liver, macrophage, and adipocyte status in long‐lived Ames dwarf mice

The exceptional longevity of Ames dwarf (DF) mice can be abrogated by a brief course of growth hormone (GH) injections started at 2 weeks of age. This transient GH exposure also prevents the increase in cellular stress resistance and decline in hypothalamic inflammation characteristic of DF mice. Here, we show that transient early‐life GH treatment leads to permanent alteration of pertinent changes in adipocytes, fat‐associated macrophages, liver, muscle, and brain that are seen in DF mice. Ames DF mice, like Snell dwarf and GHRKO mice, show elevation of glycosylphosphatidylinositol specific phospholipase D1 in liver, neurogenesis in brain as indicated by BDNF and DCX proteins, muscle production of fibronectin type III domain‐containing protein 5 (a precursor of irisin), uncoupling protein 1 as an index of thermogenic capacity in brown and white fat, and increase in fat‐associated anti‐inflammatory macrophages. In each case, transient exposure to GH early in life reverts the DF mice to the levels of each protein seen in littermate control animals, in animals evaluated at 15–18 months of age. Thus, many of the traits seen in long‐lived mutant mice, pertinent to age‐related changes in inflammation, neurogenesis, and metabolic control, are permanently set by early‐life GH levels.