Growth Hormone Treatment in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The use of growth hormone (GH) in clinical endocrine practice is in an ever-expanding state because the beneficial effects of GH in a variety of clinical conditions are increasingly appreciated. Although GH has been used to treat GH -deficient patients for more than 40 years practical guidelines for GH therapy in children and adolescents have not been available until recently. In the past human GH was extracted from cadaver pituitaries in a tedious procedure and was available in limited quantities. In 1985 however clinical data indicated that pituitary -derived GH was the likely source of contaminated material (prions) which was responsible for the development of a slowly progressive and fatal neurological disorder known as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. Consequently production and distribution of pituitary GH for therapy were discontinued. Biosynthetic GH of recombinant DNA origin with an amino acid sequence identical to that of human GH became available for prescription in the US and Europe in 1986 and is produced commercially now by several laboratories. (excerpt)