Blood polyamines in fetal and postnatal growth and HGH effects on their levels

Abstract

Studies in vitro and in animals have demonstrated that tissue levels of polyamines (spermidine, spermine putrescine) are augmented during embrional and cellular growth. Moreover a number of hormones have been shown to stimulate polyamines biosynthesis in target organs. These data prompt us to determine fluorymetrically, after TLC separation, dansylpolyamines in blood during pregnancy, in umbilical cord, in normal subjects of various pediatric ages and in hypopituitary patients after HGH i.m. The obtained results can be summarized as follows: I) during pregnancy polyamines are higher than in non pregnant women; two peaks are demonstrable at 10th and 36th weeks. 2) in umbilical cord values are higher than in pregnancy. 3) in children they are higher than in adults, maximal values are found in infancy. 4) after HGH an increment was evident in 3 out of 4 patients at start of therapy and in 4 out of 5 patients under continuous therapy. These results suggest a parallelism between blood levels of polyamines and period of maximal fetal and postnatal growth and a possible relationship between GH and polyamines biosynthesis as in animals.