Comparison of growth hormone responses to human pancreatic growth hormone releasing factor and other pharmacological stimuli in acromegalic patients.

Abstract

Synthetic human pancreatic growth hormone releasing factor (pGRF) was administrated intravenously to 14 acromegalic patients, and the response of plasma GH to pGRF was compared with that to TRH, GnRH or other GH-stimulating agents in these patients. Three patients hyperresponded (more than 8 times), 4 patients responded (2-4 times), 4 patients hyporesponded (1.5-2.0 times) and 3 patients did not respond at all. There was no correlation between the responses to TRH and pGRF, however, an intimate relationship was observed between responses to pGRF and GnRH in the patients who hyperresponded to pGRF. A patient not responding to pGRF showed a marked response to insulin or clonidine and another patient not responding to insulin or clonidine did respond to pGRF. Similarly, some patients not responding to FK 33-824, a met-enkephalin analog, or arginine did respond to pGRF.