GH1 and Obesity: However, considering that both male and female SL/HFD rats showed roughly similar alterations in key metabolic parameters, such as body weight gain, increased basal glucose levels and hyper-leptinemia, the observed sex differences in deregulated somatotropic factors are unlikely to be merely caused by this higher metabolic deterioration in SL/HFD animals, but rather represent a genuine phenomenon that documents the sexually-divergent mechanisms underlying the impact of early onset obesity on the GH axis.