Aging attenuates both the regularity and joint synchrony of LH and testosterone secretion in normal men: analyses via a model of graded GnRH receptor blockade

Testosterone (T) secretion declines in the aging male, albeit for unknown reasons. From an ensemble perspective, repeated incremental signaling among gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and T is required to maintain physiological androgen availability. Pattern-regularity statistics, such as univariate approximate entropy (ApEn) and bivariate cross-ApEn, provide specific and sensitive model-free measurement of altered multipathway control. The present study exploits partial muting of one pathway (GnRH drive) to appraise adaptive regulation of LH and T secretion in young and aging individuals. Analyses comprised 100 paired 18-h LH and T concentration time series obtained in 25 healthy men ages 20–72 yr each administered placebo and three graded doses of a specific GnRH-receptor antagonist. Graded blockade of GnRH drive increased the individual regularity of LH and T secretion and the synchrony of LH-T feedforward and T-LH feedback in the cohort as a whole ( P < 0.001 for each). However, age markedly attenuated ganirelix-induced enhancement of univariate T orderliness and bivariate LH-T feedback and T-LH feedback synchrony ( P ≤ 0.0025). In summary, the present analyses support the thesis that aging disrupts coordinate control of T secretion, LH-T feedforward, and T-LH feedback in healthy men. Thus the experimental strategy of stepwise silencing of an agonistic pathway may have utility in dissecting the bases of altered neurohormonal linkages in other systems.