Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

I am the Clinical Director of the Neuroendocrine Clinical Center at the MGH and also head a multidisplinary research program, the MGH Program in Nutritional Metabolism, focusing on obesity, regulation of substrate metabolism, body composition and neuroendocrine signaling of appetite and energy balance.

Research

Dr. Grinspoon and members of his research group have made major contributions to the understanding of reduced GH secretion in visceral obesity, the relationship of excess visceral fat to cardiovascular risk, and to the development of novel neuroendocrine strategies to reduce this risk among patients with fat redistribution syndromes, including lipodystrophy and generalized obesity.  Addressing the issue of visceral fat accumulation and it's reltionship to cardiovascular risk, Dr. Grinspoon has performed studies to show that pulsatile GH secretion is reduced in tight association with excess visceral obesity, and has led the development of a potentially new drug strategy using growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) to increase endogenous pulsatile GH, and selectively reduce visceral fat among lipodystrophic patients. He has studied the consequences of subclinical inflammation among patients with generalized and obesity and developed novel strategies to reduce insulin resisitance by blocking TNF-alpha.  

Diabetes drug halts atherosclerosis progression in HIV-infected patients

Treatment with the common diabetes drug metformin appears to prevent progression of coronary atherosclerosis in patients infected with HIV.

Increased cardiovascular risk in HIV-infected patients may relate to arterial inflammation

The elevated risk of cardiovascular disease seen in patients infected with HIV appears to be associated with increased inflammation within the arteries, according to a study in a special issue of JAMA published in conjunction with the International AIDS Conference.